Life will change (Instrumental version) - Persona 5/5 Royal (Or The Royal)
Great game.
Sorry for the last chapter's quality, hopefully, this chapter is better!
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!
It has been brought to my attention that someone on the 'webnovel' website has been plagiarising this work. Author Darker_Than_Black has stolen my work... That's somehow surpassed even this story in terms of views. Like, on this website I only have 120k views, within a few days it's gotten nearly 160k views.
Should I be proud of it?
I just find the situation hilarious. Out of all the works you could have plagiarised, mine was the one that was chosen. And it's become successful? It's even an 'original' series for webnovel. They even separated the chapters, so chapters 1-8 here are 1-24 on that website, also known as volume 1. Sadly, the series on web novel doesn't have my ramblings - So that makes it an instant 10/10!
That being said, obviously, I'm sorta sad that it's been plagiarised. Although, I do thank Gotha, IdioticBaka, Aledamonkey, True Chaos and setfanus101 for speaking about this issue in the comments.
It's crazy, this story has become popular enough for it to be plagiarised.
Ha, that's given me a new plot point for Sora and Tokoyami's plot line.
How great.
Will I act upon them? Eh, I don't really care. Honestly, so long as people know that it's a story not written by Darker_Than_Black then that's fine with me.
Summary so far:
.
.
S̴̟̝͚̓̔o̸͎̤͙͌̍̔́̿̿́̄́͠r̷̗̭̯̰̣̟̲̞͍͇̙͐ȧ̵̡̕͝ ̷̳̔̾̒̈̀̅̎̍̑̿i̸̭̗̬̯͈͉̹̤̮̣̣͐͒́͗͗̚ͅş̶̣̝̫̖͕̥͓̦̓͐̔̊̿͜ ̴̛̯̮̜̳̔̓̂̍̒̄̓͊̿͝n̴̡̤̤͖̣̙̠̲͚̳̟͓͒́̃o̷͓͕̪̗͙̗̅̽͐̋͂̒̇́̎̃͆͘t̸̤̮̩̮̠͙̰̾͊͒̿ ̴̡̥̤̖͎̹͚̼̾͘͜ä̴̧̨͈͈͌́̉͊ ̷̛͍͉̋̇̀̄̓̋̔́̕͜ḧ̸̡̧̲͔̣̭̭̳̰́͝a̸̙͒̚p̸͚̏͑̈́̑̎p̷̪̣̳͇̎̋̓͐͑̅͌̋̅͘ẏ̶̢̜̠͉̥̱̭̦̣̱̣̫̾
.
.
That's all!
"So, your fourth Quirk appeared," Aizawa began, "And it allows you to see into the future or a potential future. This being that the villains will attack our camp tonight, Is that the gist of it?"
"Yep."
"Do you think the villains will invade our camp tonight?"
"I don't know," I replied honestly. "At this point, anything could happen. Maybe my Quirk is correct, and maybe it isn't. But my Quirk told me that Aoyama was a traitor, and I was right."
"So, after I told you to tell me if anything comes up regarding your mystery Quirk, you decide to keep it a secret until now."
"...Would you believe me if I said it slipped my mind?"
Aizawa sighed at that. "The sad part is that I would." I grinned at that, despite the glare he shot my way. "Despite that, I still don't appreciate you and Tokage deciding to 'interrogate' Aoyama yourselves. You should have told me at least, especially when Tokage doesn't know about your Quirks… She does, doesn't she?"
"It sorta' slipped out."
"Slipped out?" He asked me incredulously, "Oh yes, I'm sorry, sensitive information that could put a target on you and your family 'slipped out.' No worries Yamazaki, I'm sure nothing bad will happen to you." He said sarcastically. "Yamazaki, how many people do you know have more than a single Quirk?"
I bit my tongue, I really didn't want to go and out Midoriya right now.
I'd even say my 'Quirk foresaw it' but I feel like it would be overkill.
"Ah but you see, my Quirk has foreseen that-,"
"Shut. Up." Aizawa said slowly, rubbing his temple as he groaned. "Does your 'Quirk' only kick in when you want it to, or does it happen randomly."
"Randomly."
"I see," I really don't think he does, "Well that makes this even more annoying. Do you understand how much easier it would have been if your Quirk activated before we went on this trip? God, I'm just imagining the amount of paperwork I'm going to get if the villains do attack…"
"Paperwork? What about your incredibly cute, and loveable students?!"
"Hm? Oh yeah, I forgot about the class."
Was he being for real? No, that sly smirk on his face, the way his eyes were curved - He was just trying to egg me on! Aha, I knew what-,
"That being said," Suddenly, his mood changed as he grabbed my arm tightly, "I do not appreciate you acting the way you did with Aoyama. We aren't vigilantes, we do not take things into our own hands. Am I clear?"
"Yeah, yeah," I replied, "I know I overstepped the boundaries. You don't need to tell me that. I was going to go and apologise to Aoyama right after, so-,"
"Do you think he wants to see you right now after the stunt you pulled?"
"I'm just saying sorry-,"
"Because you genuinely feel bad, or because you hurt him?" Aizawa-sensei asked me.
"Both." I answered, "I hurt him, and he's my friend. I acted irrationally, and I could have killed a lot of people if I kept his secret away from everyone. But at the same time, I was doing what I-,"
"Thought was the best course of action?"
I nodded at that.
"So you admit that you were thinking about yourself, and not the safety of the camp?" He asked me.
"No, that's not true. I did all this shit to Aoyama because of the threat-,"
"The threat that your 'Quirk' told you about, a threat that may or may not happen tonight. Listen, Yamazaki, even if I call for backup it won't arrive in time. How many villains did your 'Quirk' show you to be arriving? What are their Quirks? Yamazaki, I'm tasked with not only protecting you but everyone else in our class, what would you have me do?" He asked me.
"I know all this." I closed my eyes, breathing in to calm myself. I had a tight window, but I had to convince Aizawa to follow my plan first. "Sir, if I may, I have a plan."
"Give me one good reason why I, your teacher, should listen to what you have to say right now without expelling you on the spot." He replied furiously, unlike before Aizawa-sensei truly was angry with me. "So you not only withheld information from me, your teacher and the only person tasked with helping you out with your multiple Quirks, you instead went and told your friend about a potential villain attack, a villain attack that apparently might not happen due to one of the ring leaders claiming it wasn't happening, so you failed to sort it out yourself, and now you have come crawling back to me? Why should I listen to you?"
"I know, alright," I kicked my chair from under me, standing up to face him fully. Even if I was only around five foot five, and even if Aizawa-sensei did tower over me, I wasn't afraid of expulsion - Or any of the things he would threaten me with. "I-, I fucked up. Yeah, Shigaraki said that an 'attack wasn't happening' but I don't believe that for a second. I did try to sort things out myself, and I did fail at it. Instead, Aoyama got hurt, and so did Tokage. I bet she feels like shit right now, and she's probably trying to rile others up to distract herself from the fact she tortured him."
"But, I want to make things right. I don't deserve my chance to make things right, but I'm still going to try anyway." Grabbing the coin on the table in front of us, I flicked it up in the air and watched it fall back on the table. Heads. "I have a plan, it's not perfect, but it's a start."
"...Go on." Aizawa sat back down, he still wasn't happy with me, but he was at least listening. Good, that was a step in the right direction.
"We give everyone their phones back right now," I told him. "We don't tell them anything, we don't even acknowledge the fact that the villains may attack tonight."
"And why would we do that? You said the villains don't have our location yet, and that's because Aoyama hasn't messaged them. Why would we willingly put everyone in danger?"
"I don't think Aoyama is the one that broke into our cabin," I replied, "That being said, you can't give everyone their phones. Eventually, their parents will start to call U.A claiming that they haven't spoken to their child in days, then what? Would you rather postpone the villain attack for a few days? No, we have to give everyone their phones back now."
"Then what? We give them their phones, so what are we going to do about the attack."
"That's simple," I smirked at him, "We do nothing."
Laughter can be described as bringing joy out of others, I know that it's what I do, but in Aizawa's case, his laughter reminded me of a man surrounded by a ghost. His eyes shone with such happiness that I couldn't tell if he was brought back to the past, or if he was just crazy. It was the subtle way he rocked his chair back like he was back in high school that really made me on guard.
Did I just break this man's sanity?!
"You are telling me, that your 'plan', the one that you want me to follow," He paused to chuckle lightly, "Is it just a bluff?"
"Not just a bluff, the ultimate bluff," I told him, picking the coin back up again. "The problem with eventually giving everyone their phones is that we don't know who will send the villains to our location, nor do we have any idea when the villains will attack if you give everyone their phones tomorrow. The villains wanted to attack today because somehow they knew that we were going into the forest at night. It's like flipping a coin, heads or tails, both aren't the outcome we want."
"So what are you proposing? To bluff our way to safety?"
I shook my head, flipping the coin in the air before catching it right before it landed on the table. "No, I'm saying we bluff for today. We make it so that the villains will attack tomorrow, and we call for reinforcements to arrive tomorrow. We'll create our own coalition force, being a mix of heroes, both in and out of U.A, and the police."
"How are you going to get the police to agree to your plan?"
"I know someone." I replied with a wink, "She's a dear friend of mine. She's also the youngest detective in the force at this current moment and has joined the League of Villains investigation team. Her dad is the 'leader' apparently. I can get her to join easily, all I need is for you to get the heroes from U.A, and potentially from beyond U.A to join up and take the villains down."
Aizawa nodded at the plan, impressed by my genius. Hah, that was my one good idea for the year wasted.
"Getting the rest of the faculty from U.A to join is simple, but how do you expect me to convince other heroes, heroes who may not even believe in me, to join up?"
"Simple, you have Aoyama and me."
"Aoyama I understand, but why you? How will you convince someone like Endeavour to take your claims seriously?" He asked me curiously, I could tell from his eyes that he was interested in my plan, and what I had to say. I could also see a hint of pride in his eyes, after all, he taught me the lesson here. A hero is never a one-trick pony.
"I'm the reason Aoyama has been outed as a traitor, or rather my Quirk. That gives credence to it, don't you think? I, or rather you, will explain to them everything. From my Quirk kicking in, to Shigaraki's lie to throw me off, and Aoyama's true nature." I watched as the clogs turned in his head, "If we reveal to them everything, but withhold just enough about my other Quirks, we can not only get a task force assembled in time but also potentially find more leads on both my mother and father."
Leads that will eventually lead to the truth.
After all, isn't it odd that someone has more than one Quirk? Sure, it'll put a target on my back. And it'll lead to a lot of scientists wanting to examine me, hell it might even make international news. Scratch that, it probably will. This was why I was going through with the plan because it was much like skipping rocks. The entire time, I was focused on trying to reach the destination, the middle of the lake.
My 'carefree tomorrow.'
But I wasn't bouncing properly, I was merely sinking straight to the bottom. Keeping everything a secret, wasn't that just playing directly into Zero's hands. Sure, I wasn't able to tell everyone that I had died and had been reincarnated, not without dying, but I was able to talk about having multiple Quirks. That's more than enough spin added to my trajectory to make it bounce.
I had no doubts that the villains were going to escape once they caught wind of the task force we were going to assemble, but my idea functioned for a different purpose as well. If things went well, and we managed to capture even one villain, my credibility would be boosted the fuck up. I'd be more trusted, and so I'd be privy to more sensitive information - Information not even Nanao could access.
I'd effectively jump to the top.
"Do you know what you are saying?" He asked me, "What sacrifices you will be forced to make? You think that you won't become the next zoo animal for the public to look at. Yamazaki, your private life will be over."
"Which is why Aozora and Sora Yamazaki will be two completely different people." I replied, "Sure, I was at the sports festival. So my name is out there, and my actions during my internship showed me without a mask. But, it's not too late for a costume redesign is it? I mean it's not too late for U.A to spin things around and give me a random name, and then I'll wear a cool mask for the rest of my career. Piece of cake, right?"
Plus, it'll give me an excuse to dye my hair.
Finally.
"This is childish, nonsensical and too trusting." He critiqued my plan, but he wasn't trying to hide his smile. "Frankly, this 'plan' of yours hinges on not only your contact in the police getting a force ready for tomorrow, and my ability to convince other heroes to join. And yes, U.A can change the narrative around. Aozora can quickly become a 'masked man' in a blink of an eye, we have the resources and the marketing team for that. But this might be for the worse, it means that 'Aozora' will be a masquerade for you if you slip up even once your private life is over."
Bah, no sweat.
If Spider-Man could do it, so can I.
"Isn't a hero meant to wear a mask?" I joked, "Plus, I feel like I can rock a mask pretty well. I have the 'cool and mysterious vibe going for me, don't you think?" Sure, my Quirk might be a dead giveaway for some people, but Quirks are pretty similar. Plus, if I can get my training done, I'll be able to beat all allegations of me being Sora Yamazaki. Ha, it was sort of funny.
When I first came to U.A, I wanted everyone to know me.
Now, I'm fighting for anonymity.
Ironic.
"This plan as it stands now will probably fail," He told me honestly, "But, it can work if we tweak it. Having a coalition force appear tomorrow is impossible, plus I doubt the villains will attack tomorrow if we manage to bluff them tonight."
"So when will we attack them?"
"In three days." He answered, "In three days our trip will be finished. We will be on our coaches going back to Musutafu, but we have to cross a specific mountain first." He pointed to the only window in the cabin, where a mountain could be seen in the distance. "Mount Kurohoshi. There is a mountain pass there that's sizable enough for not only the heroes and police to be stationed, but is also the only place the villains can really attack us from if they want to trap us."
"Their trap becomes our trap!"
"Exactly." He nodded at my statement, "However, the only problem is how will we manage to make the traitor message the villains to postpone the attack. There is no guarantee our bluff will buy three days, and if we just hand everyone their phones on the day we come back, the villains will likely smell a trap coming. Even if we give the phones out tomorrow, the villains might not attack due to the time it's taken for their informant to send the location of our camp."
"Why don't we simply tell everyone about it?"
"Because, as you say, we have no idea who the informant is. Aoyama might have been a traitor to our class, but if you are right about Zero using his mind-control Quirk from afar, then it'll destroy our element of surprise against the villains." He explained, "Alternatively, we could just let everyone use their phones for a few minutes and take them away, but even then that's suspicious. I can't check nineteen phones at once, and Vlad King can't check twenty either, it's an invasion of privacy even if it's important."
Tch.
"So, how about we just let everyone use their phone no problem? We don't just have the bluff for today, we can bluff for the next three days. The informant might send the location to the villains today, but if we can make them also send a warning or more information that we will be open for an attack on the journey home, it should make them change their plans?"
"I see, you want to feed them false information." Well, that was Tokage and I's original plan, only send them to environments we had trapped. Looking back on it, that wasn't exactly the best idea. "That makes things much easier. You go get the box of phones, I already have some ideas of what to say to everyone. While you are at it, contact your police friend to contact Tsukauchi Naomasa.'" I nodded at him, watching as he left the cabin with a determined look on his face.
Immediately, I grabbed my phone and rang Nanao.
It was time to make good on our deal.
Chapter
Thirty
Two
'There are some promises worth dying for!'
"A task force? Sure, I can do that. But Tsukauchi Naomasa? Really?" Nanao giggled across the phone. "That's funny."
"Why's that funny?" My phone was resting on my shoulder, my hands were too busy carrying the box with everyone's phones inside. Jeez, how heavy were these fucking phones? Wait, did Yaoyorozu bring a tablet?!
"Well, I told you that my name was Nanao Iori, right? Well, that's not strictly true. That police officer that found me after Yozora killed the 'Eleventh' and left was Tsukauchi Naomasa." She explained, "That's the only reason I was allowed to even join the force at such a young age, spearhead the Yozora investigation and join the League of Villains case. So no worries, I'll contact him. Your teacher can relax on that front.."
"What are the freakin' odds?" Seriously, how fucking convenient?! Was this my luck?!
"Well, I have to go now. You've given me a lot of work to do. I'll contact you and your teacher later on tonight, but whatever you do, do not lose your phone."
"Why?"
"I'm going to try and bug your phone from afar so that even if something happens we can know your location."
"You can do that?"
"Sora, there is a Quirk for everything. Even bugging technology from a distance. Anyways, goodbye, for now. We'll speak again soon." Motherfucker, don't just hang up on me like that! Now, who was I supposed to speak to?! Aizawa-sensei was still trying to make the bluff stick, which meant that he was out of the picture. That was until I walked across the camp to find Aoyama sitting down on a bench, all alone.
He had a towel wrapped around his neck, and his hair was wet.
The bruises all over his face made me cringe, especially since I was the reason why he got them in the first place.
The phones can wait, this is more important.
I sat down next to Aoyama, sighing as he flinched at me. I deserved that.
"Are you going to hit me?"
"No," I replied. "I'm sorry. I know you probably don't want me to apologise, but I need to. I fucked up, and I hurt you because of it. If you just want to ignore me for the rest of our time at U.A, and beyond, I'm totally fine with that. What Tokage and I did to you was more than fucked up, and if you want to tell everyone about what we did, well that's fine too."
"You're scared." That was the only reply I got. Aoyama was shaking as he faced me, tears were streaming down his face as his eyes met my own. "When you left, I could see how scared you were. Just from your eyes alone, I could see that you were scared. Maybe even more scared than me."
"Yeah."
We didn't say anything for a few minutes, only sitting in silence.
"Did you-,"
"Tell Aizawa about you? Yeah, I did."
"What about-,"
"Your parents? Don't worry, we don't need your phone. Your parents will be fine. Sorry about nearly putting them in danger too, I was out of order for that." He didn't reply, he merely sighed in relief, wiping his tears away.
"You must think of me as a coward, don't you?"
I shook my head, smiling at him. "Not really. If you're a coward, then so am I. I knew about your predicament for some time, yet I didn't act on it. I could have helped you, but I didn't." Was it fair blaming myself when I wasn't remembering if Aoyama was the traitor until recently? No, not really. But I still felt guilty either way. "Anyways, do you want your phone? I'm supposed to hand these out, but since I saw your first, I might as well hand yours first."
"A-are you sure that's alright?"
"Relax, the villains aren't attacking. You can forget that it was ever going to happen in the first place." It wouldn't do us good if Aoyama freaked out and told everyone else about it, not that I thought he would, I just wanted to be safe rather than sorry. "Once again, I'm sorry for everything. You are supposed to be my friend, but I haven't treated you like one. If you decide to cut all ties with me, I understand. What I did wasn't okay and-,"
"Ferme-la!" He interrupted me in French, "Ahem, I said for you to shut up. What you did to me was wrong, yes, but what I've done to everyone was also just as bad, if not worse. Merde, I put everyone in danger by living in fear of what the villains could do that I hurt you and Tokage. And I could have hurt so many others because I wanted to protect everyone in 1A as well as my parents. You're my friend, and everyone in 1A is my friend. I feel like I belong here, but I am still living in fear."
I watched as he took his phone, and opened it before going to his contact list and deleting a number off his phone.
"I'm still afraid, but I don't want anyone to die for my cowardly behaviour," He explained, "I don't want my fear to cause the future that you saw." Oh yeah, I forgot that I told Aoyama about the potential future when I was caught up in the heat of the moment… "Don't worry, I'll keep your secret safe."
"Eh, everyone's going to know soon enough anyway." I replied, "So if you can keep it a secret for a few more days, I'd appreciate it. Anyways, it seems like you know what you want to do. That's great to hear."
Aoyama nodded at me, a smile having finally returned to his face.
"Even if I'm afraid, I don't want it to take control of my life anymore. And I hope that you conquer your fear one day, Sora." Aoyama told me, standing up to offer his hand out to me. "One day, I'll make it up to you Sora! Just you wait!"
"I'm looking forward to it, Aoyama."
It wasn't my idea, but here I was. Tied up two metres from the ground, dangling like I was a pinata or something. For the record, Momo's plan involved me acting as 'bait' to get Jiro to come and help me, only for the door to this dorm to suddenly 'shut' forcing us to speak again. Well, it's not like I had a better idea, but it's not like I enjoyed the plan in the first place.
I just wanted to know why a straight-laced girl like Momo even came up with this idea? Especially when she tied me up like it was some BDSM routine, why the hell did she have to make the ropes so tight?! I couldn't fucking move. At least Jiro came rushing in and fell for the plan, the door sliding shut right afterwards. I watched for a few minutes as she screamed for help, banging against the door for someone to come over and help.
"Can ya' help me down?" I eventually asked.
"Did you make this plan?" She asked me accusingly, her arms crossed as she glared at me. "Yaomomo said that she needed a few things from here, but here you are."
"Here I am," I repeated, "Now can you please help me out? This is starting to hurt. And no, this was not my plan. Blame Momo, that's what I'm doing."
"...Momo?"
"Yeah, she told me to call her by her first name," I replied, starting to panic as I tried to wiggle my way out to freedom, "Something about me being her 'younger brother' which is bullshit since I'm four months older than her. She should call me her older brother because that's essentially what I am. Now help?"
"From my eyes, you look more than capable of helping yourself."
"Jiro, please."
"Fine." She used her ear lobes to cut the ropes, unfortunately, she stepped out of the way as I came crashing down to the ground. Ouch. That fucking hurt. I glared at the door, which was probably where Momo was, listening in to our conversation to make sure that things were progressing smoothly. I mean it's not like we had much time anyways, after I handed out everyone's phones, Aizawa and Vlad King mended tonight's activities.
Instead, we were doing checks on the camp perimeter, essentially patrols. Along with Aizawa's lie that 'there were many surprises for us' I did not doubt that whoever Zero would inevitably control would cause the attack to be delayed. Especially since it was already eight in the afternoon, I was stuck on 'patrol' while I handed Aizawa Nanao's number so that he could speak to her.
It was so unfair.
If anything unexpected happened, I was supposed to call him right away. Well, I was sure that Zero wasn't going to launch the attack tonight. He was cautious, but more than that I believed that he wanted the attack to go smoothly. For no one to get hurt, because he wanted me. Just from his apology back in Hosu, he knew that if anyone in 1A was indirectly hurt because of his actions, I would never hear him out.
Not that I was going to in the first place, but he had his own belief in me that hadn't been broken yet.
"Ugh, I can't believe I'm stuck with you." She complained, kicking a box across the room. "And here I thought I'd be able to ignore you for a few days, but now I have to do a patrol with you and we are stuck in this shitty room."
"Oi, you should be thankful that it's me and not someone like Kaminari."
"I'd prefer Kaminari. At least he isn't an asshole to his friends."
"Oh please, like you weren't an asshole to Mineta just yesterday. I get it, I said something wrong and I regret it. You deserve to be angry at me, but don't try to take the moral high ground here."
"I'm not trying to take anything!" She screamed at me, "Don't think for a second that none of us saw Aoyama's injuries. Do you take me for a fool? Do you really think that I can't piece things together?"
"Well, what do you want me to say?" I asked her, "Did I hurt him? Yeah, I fucking did. Congratulations, is this what you wanted? A confession? Are you this petty?"
"I'm the petty one here? No, what's petty is getting angry and using your friends' fears against them. What's petty is then getting Yaomomo involved in your mess because you know you messed up, and you need help in getting me to 'accept' your apology. No Sora, I'm not accepting this," She shouted at me, "I hurt Mineta, I did, but frankly - I deserve to be treated better by you. The one person I thought I could count on, the one person I'd never in a million years think would hurt me. I made a mistake, but I didn't deserve to be treated like that."
I didn't say anything, only resting my head against the wall.
"And now look at you. Sitting there on the ground, it's like you don't even want to listen to me."
"Well, what do you want me to say? That you are wrong? Because you aren't. But I didn't ask Yaoyorozu to help me, she decided to help me out of her own volition. You didn't deserve what I said to you, I used your fears to hurt you and that's not okay. But fuck me, you do understand why that situation ever came up, right? I'm a bastard for doing what I did to you, but I hope you know why it happened."
To her credit, Jiro nodded meekly. She sat down next to me, sighing while doing so as she rested her head on my shoulder.
"Yeah. I messed up with Mineta, and now he's ignoring everyone. I hoped that you'd fix everything, but you were right. You aren't a miracle worker, but I wanted you to desperately fix my problems. Here I wanted to be strong enough to not rely on you like the USJ, but I'm still relying on you to help me out when things get tough."
"Well, I did say I'd help you for the rest of your life, didn't I?"
"You did?" She asked me, "Hm, maybe you did, I genuinely can't remember for the life of me. The point is that I failed, I'm a hypocrite. I want to be stronger, strong enough to not be put in a situation like the USJ ever again, but I can't even go and help my friend out when I hurt them. Even now, I want to ignore you. I want to try and ignore you for a few days so I can become strong, but that's just bullshit. I made my pal cry, and I just wanted to escape that reality. I then pushed it onto you to solve, so for that, I'm sorry. You deserved better."
"I guess we both are shitty friends." I joked, "Maybe we should make a hero duo? The world's shittiest heroes: Aozora and Earphone Jack. Fuck, why's your name so long? That's a mouthful. 'Earphone Jack, reporting for duty!' That just makes me giggle thinking about it."
"Haha, funny." She poked me in the ribs for that comment, "Aozora sounds stupid. 'Blue Sky' my ass, just admit it, you got your name from a bank. You are so lucky no one's realised it yet."
"Aozora is a bank's name?!"
"Mmh. Also a sushi place in Europe, but I've never been. It sounds nice. Aozora. I wonder if they'll serve sushi under the blue sky."
"I'll take you there," I told her, before hiding my face in embarrassment at the look she gave me. "If you want to go, I mean, not as in I'm going to take you one-hundred per cent. Ya' know. Stop giving me that look already, jeez, you're making me think that you don't want to go to Europe."
"I said Europe sounds nice." She replied. "I didn't think you'd take it seriously, but if you really want to take me to Europe, I won't refuse."
"I'd be able to show you around London and everything."
"I didn't know you've been to London?"
Oh, it totally slipped my mind. Sora Yamazaki has never been to London before. Ah, London. I wonder how much of it has changed? "I went once when I was younger. Before I was adopted by Gekko and Hinata."
"You were practically a baby then, how would you show me around London?"
"That's for me to know, and for you to guess." She rolled her eyes at my response, but instead of poking me in the ribs, she decided to pinch my arm.
"Tell me."
"No."
"Fine then. Whatever. I'll go with you to Europe, now are we good? Can we just forget about this, and go about helping Mineta become our friend again? It's not the same without him, that absolute idiot." Jiro got up from the floor, brushing some dust off her clothes. "I can't believe he would really believe that he's all alone. When he comes back to us, I'll make sure to properly apologise to him. I'll also make it abundantly clear to him that he's a close friend of mine."
"Hey Kyoka, do you want to go to Europe after we finish U.A?" I asked her, "Ya' know, just the two of us. We'll be what, eighteen, well I'll be nearly nineteen. We will be able to go clubbing and stuff in most European countries. We can buy alcohol and shit, holy fuck, we'll be nineteen in three years."
"Just the two of us?" I nodded at her. "That sounds suspiciously like a date. A really long, expensive but sweet date. But sure, I'm down. But that's like three years away from now, there's no way we are actually going to go to Europe or something. We'll probably forget about this in two months."
"Wanna' bet?"
"Bet what?"
"Loser has to pay for the trip."
"You're on."
Suddenly, the door opened. Standing outside, with a sly smirk on her face, Yaoyorozu shrugged her shoulders at Jiro's furious expression.
"You!"
"Yes, me." Yaoyorozu narrowly avoided the box that was thrown her way. "Now you two lovebirds need to get up and complete your patrol. Or else I'll throw you in detention for a month when we get back to school."
Great, another excuse to skip Aizawa's detentions.
The woods were dark, obviously since it was late at night, but that didn't stop Jiro from checking every corner carefully. Her torch was kept close to her chest as she made sure to be close enough so that I could pull her away from danger. Ha, what a scaredy-cat. What was she afraid of, some giant spider… Shit, what if there was a giant spider?! Fuck, fuck, fuck - Calm down!
Giant spiders don't exist.
But what if they did-,
"It's very quiet." Thankfully, Jiro interrupted my thoughts right before I could have a mental breakdown over giant spiders. "Want to trade horror stories?"
"W-what?! Why would you want to do that?"
"So who's going to go first? Or are you going to chicken out, Sora?"
I shook my head. I was not a chicken! "Okay, I got one. Many moons ago, in the dead of the night, there used to be a tofu driver who raced down a mountain and got in a nasty car crash."
"And then…?"
"That's it. He died. He thought he was a street racer, but instead, he was just an average driver in a Toyota Corolla. There was nothing special about him, nor his car. So the real horror aspect of this story is that you shouldn't try to race down a mountain in a Toyota Corolla."
"...How's that scary? Urgh, fine then, I might as well share a story. Be careful, this might make you cry." I gulped at that, my eyes narrowing at the shadows. Monsters don't exist. "Once upon a time, there lived a happy couple. The husband, whose name has been forgotten over time, loved his wife dearly. Yet they held a dark secret, within their loft they-,"
"OH LOOK OVER THERE!" I shouted, cutting her off. "IT'S A SPIDER! A MASSIVE, HAIRY SPIDER!"
"Scaredy cat."
"It's on your left shoulder."
"No, it's not. I'm pointing my torch to it."
"It swung to the other shoulder."
"Spiders can't do that?!"
"Are you asking or telling me?"
Eventually, Jiro and I went back to our camp. Not before sitting near the cliff overlooking the majority of the forest. Something about Jiro wanting 'to take a good photo'. Bah, as if I'll ever understand what goes on in her head. Although, going to a cliff in the middle of the night with a girl, all alone. Not to mention the fact that it was extremely hot, even though it was pitch black.
And the fact that Jiro was wearing denim shorts and a white tank top, one that allowed me to briefly look at the colour of her bra. Holy shit, Kaminari was right. That was pretty hot. Yet, when we reached the top of the cliff, instead of taking a picture overlooking the camp as she wanted, we were instead greeted with Mineta simply laying down on the ground, motionless.
At first, I thought he was dead, a morbid thought, but I sighed in relief as I saw his chest rise up and down.
He was merely sleeping.
Lucky bastard.
"You can go back to camp," I told her, "Mineta and I need to have a chat."
"A chat?" She asked me, her eyebrows raised and her eyes showed the scepticism she had regarding my words. Had I tried this a couple of days ago, I might have totally understood where she was coming from. But I was going to help Mineta, I wasn't going to allow him to think that he was alone. "Fine, fine. Go ahead and work your 'magic', but I'm staying right here." Jiro told me, "I'm his friend and I hurt him. I have just as much of a right as you to be here, no, perhaps even more. Plus, I don't trust your instincts to get to camp with him, knowing you it'll probably be morning by the time you come back to camp."
"Oi, I get lost at train stations, not in the middle of the woods."
"So you finally admit that you are dyslexic and can't read signs." She joked, giving me a thumbs up. "Make sure you give him a good talk, and not one of your rambles. I swear, if I overhear the two of you speaking about how hot the girls in our class are, I'll push the two of you off this cliff."
"And if we talk about how hot you are?"
She blushed at that.
"S-shut up! Just go and do your job already!"
Ah, teasing her was fun. Never mind my heart racing as I said that, even though it wasn't a real 'confession' it was about as far as I'd really go. Plus, only God knows why she thought of herself as not as beautiful as the other girls in our class. Sure, she didn't have the same figure as Momo, nor the flexibility like Mina, or even the tongue like Asui (I had to thank Mineta for putting that idea in my brain…)
But she had something that the rest of the girls didn't.
She-,
"Just go away," Mineta told me. It seems like Jiro and I's conversation had woken him up. "I don't want to speak to either of you."
"Wasn't Sero your partner?"
"Yeah, and I told him to go away." Mineta replied, "So I'll tell you what I told him; fuck off." I ignored what he said as I sat down next to him, before picking up a rock from the floor and throwing it at Mineta.
"Fuck you, asshole, say those words like you mean it!" C'mon, at least if you are going to curse, make it sound cool! "Seriously, you sound like a kid saying his first 'bad word.' Don't be a little bitch, say those words like you actually want me to 'fuck off.' But you won't, because despite your little act - You don't want me to actually leave, do you?"
"And why's that?"
"Because, you stupid prick, I've spent so much time with you that I know how you act. That's what being a friend is, knowing what they are feeling and acting accordingly to it, which is why even if you tell me to fuck off, even if you beat the shit out of me, I'll still sit next to you. Because-,"
"I don't care." He interrupted me, sending me a glare. "I don't care what you have to say, just leave me alone."
"Why would I do that? I'm your friend, even if you don't want to admit it. I ain't gonna run away from ya', so you can say whatever the fuck you want. I'll help you out-,"
"I don't need your help," Mineta cut me off once again, although this time he shoved me lightly. "Mind your own damn business for once. I'm not some toy that needs to be 'fixed,' so just go away. I don't need to be remodelled by you, and if you really want to help me, then just leave me alone. Because you can't understand-,"
"Then help me understand! Help me, because I want to help you! Don't be a dumbass and say that you're 'alone' like some edgy thirteen-year-old that got in a fight with their friends for the first time. Yeah, you and Hagakure had a nasty fight, but she wants to apologise to you. She knew what she said was wrong, so let's just go back-,"
"You think I'm angry about what she said?" Mineta laughed at me, shaking his head in response. "No, it's not about that, Sora. I am alone. That's the truth, but when I was with you, with Kaminari and everyone else, I didn't feel as alone as I used to. But I was just covering up my problems, the truth is that no one likes me. The truth is that I'm deadweight, to both this class and everyone else. So please, just leave me alone."
I couldn't reply, or really do anything as Jiro grabbed me by the collar of my shirt and dragged me away. I watched as Mineta turned his back to me, ignoring the two of us completely.
"Really?" I shouted at him, despite Jiro's efforts to shut me up, I wasn't backing down. "Is that all you have to say to me? If you think I'm just going to give up cause' you want to act like an asshole, then you have another thing coming! If you really think you are 'alone,' then you can believe what you want! But don't think for a single second that I'm going to allow you to actually be alone! Do you hear me, you fucking cunt?!"
He didn't respond, nor did I need him to.
Shaking off Jiro's arm, I turned my back to Mineta and walked straight back to camp. Fuck. That didn't go well. Around half an hour later, we arrived back at the campsite, but the majority of students had gone to sleep, with the exception of 1B. Well, they were in their 'tents' trying to go to 'sleep', so I just ignored the hush whispers and phone lights.
"So…"
"Listen, he might look like a tough cookie to crumble, but I promise you," I paused to think for a second, "I absolutely assure you, I pledge to completely ensure that by the end of tomorrow, Mineta will be the same goofball as always. He'll be sitting next to Kaminari and you making stupid jokes, and then you'll get into an argument with him. Then Kaminari will laugh, and the two of you will gang up on him. That'll definitely happen tomorrow."
"Sora," Jiro giggled out, tapping me on the head lightly. "I just wanted to say goodnight. That's all." I watched as she then waved goodbye to me, jogging back to the girl's cabin, a smile plastered across her face.
Huh.
Maybe I was overthinking things.
Bzzt.
Nanao: I sorted things out with your teacher and Tsukauchi.
You: So what's the game plan?
Nanao: I'll save the explanation for your teacher
Nanao: That being said, have a good night
Nanao: Don't let the bed bugs bite
You: What am I a kid?!
Shit… she left me on read?!
Who the fuck does that?!
Aizawa sat me down, holding a whiteboard and a pen as he described to me the plan. It was early, and I was extremely tired, yet he kept on droning on about the plan that I had to force my eyelids to remain open. Instead of telling me the plan when I arrived at the cabin, he sent me to sleep right away.
"The police will arrive here at the camp while the Heroes will be fighting the villains. Your class, as well as 1B, will be running from the mountain pass all the way back to camp, where you will then be safely escorted back to Musutafu using a different road. The Heroes will then apprehend the villains, with the police then coming in to take the captured villains away in secure vans."
"And what if the villains attack us?"
"That's why we have professional Heroes on the scene, they'll make sure that the villains are focused on them rather than you." He explained, "That being said, I do find it highly unlikely that the villains won't try something. Especially with that 'Kurogiri' of theirs, the ability to teleport anywhere with anyone is tricky. Which is why, instead of assisting the other heroes, Ken and I will be escorting the classes back to camp before helping out with the fight only after classes 1A and 1B have left the camp safely."
That was a well-thought-out plan. Well, at least it meant that even if we did have to battle someone, we wouldn't be alone.
"Have you made any progress regarding the training I gave you?"
"Yep," I smirked as his eyes widened in surprise, I suppose he didn't expect me to find my answer so quickly. To be fair, it's not like I expected myself to complete the training in the first place. 'Improve my concentration' sounds like absolute bullshit, and it was, I was merely looking at it the wrong way.
"Are you ready for another spar?" He asked me, "This time we can do it in front of anyone. Just to boost their confidence, after all, if you were able to complete your training, then they can do it as well. Just don't embarrass yourself, I don't think anyone would let you forget about it for a month or two."
A month?!
Fuck that, Kaminari would call me a 'loser' for the rest of my life!
"I'm ready whenever you are!" I replied enthusiastically, "Just be sure not to complain afterwards."
Aizawa grunted in response, dragging me out of the cabin. After gathering not only everyone in 1A, minus Mineta, and everyone in 1B as well as our instructors, I gulped nervously. I didn't think he'd get everyone to watch this quickly, but oh well.
"Momo, can you please make me a sword." I took off my top and admired my body. I never really realised it, but ever since coming to U.A I had been slowly getting a six-pack. Well not really, my abs didn't look like that yet, but it's not like I wanted a six-pack anyways.
I wouldn't be able to eat my sweets if I had one!
And I never try to control my diet!
That being said, compared to before I arrived at U.A, I clearly looked more in shape. I was oddly proud of myself because even if I didn't have the best figure in our class, I wasn't like Kaminari who stuffed his face with chocolate cake whenever we weren't looking.
"Are you going to fight without your top?" Kirishima asked me, "That's so many! And badass!" Of course, I'm a fucking badass, but that wasn't it. I took off my top because I had a spare top that I could wear. It was an older, shittier top that I didn't mind if it got torn to shreds. I just didn't want to ruin a t-shirt that I liked, that was all.
"Tell me when you are ready."
I closed my eyes and visualised what I wanted to create. A wolf. Two medium-sized wolves, both with sharp fangs. I relaxed as I placed my left-hand flat over my right fist, and opened my eyes to see that two wolf constructs stood beside me, one on the left and the right. Instantly, I lifted my left hand and pointed it at Aizawa, watching as the wolves pounced upon him, trying their hardest to tear his capture weapon to pieces.
Watching as Aizawa kicked one of the wolves in the face, and threw his cloth at me to try and capture me, yet I had that covered. Using the long sword Momo gave me, I managed to let the cloth wrap around it instead of me and threw it at Aizawa as I crouched down and made another hand sign. I grinned as he had to dodge the sword, but he couldn't dodge one of the wolves biting him in the leg.
Intertwining my thumbs, I made a bird hand sign and watched as the wolf that Aizawa kicked in the face turned into a bird instantly and circled him from above, before swooping in to hit him in the face while the other wolf tried to bite his leg. So far, so good.
Like how Midoriya described it to me, I was fully concentrating on what the hand signs meant to me. I wasn't 'increasing' my concentration, because that simply isn't possible. Instead, I was using the hand signs to focus it fully on different constructs, which used different amounts of Nimbus away from me. The wolf construct, if I had to guess, only cost forty per cent of my total Nimbus, while the bird was only twenty per cent.
Compared to before, where I would concentrate fully on making one wolf, or a bird, using the hand signs to not only mould the amount of Nimbus used, as well as my concentration, made it so that I didn't have to make a single construct at a time using all of my Nimbus, I could make multiple smaller constructs and direct them individually.
Instead of making one big wolf, I could make multiple smaller wolves, birds and whatever I wanted.
Using the rest of my Nimbus to create a massive shield in front of me, I watched as Aizawa truly smiled at my progress.
"Holy shit, he's actually pushing Aizawa-sensei back!"
"He's able to attack at a distance and potentially get up close? He could divert villains' attention elsewhere while going to save civilians who are in trouble. Even more than that he could-,"
"Shut up, nerd. I bet I could do the same! No, I'll blow him the fuck up!"
Heh, it seems like the audience was enjoying the fight.
But before I could reach him, Aizawa-sensei used a nearby cabin to propel himself away from the fight. He was even further away from me compared to a few days back, he was standing around fifty metres away from me. Tch, the bastard wanted to test me?! I pointed at Aizawa as the bird construct soared through the sky, aiming to bite at his arm. Unlike before, the construct didn't violently shake and disappear.
Instead, it hit the target.
Tearing some Nimbus away from my shield, roughly ten per cent, I made a few Truth Seeking Orbs and hurled them at Aizawa-sensei while my remaining wolf pounced on him. Before he could even see me coming, I transformed most of the shield into a platform and flew above him, before jumping down in an attempt to catch him off-guard. He was being attacked from four different angles, there was no way he could defend himself!
This was it-,
A quick kick to my stomach sent me flying backwards. Yet, my constructs still kept on attacking. I grinned, that was the final piece to the puzzle. Even if I managed to increase the distance of my attacks, that would mean nothing if a single attack could make everything disappear. That was why, as soon as I got hit, I formed a hand sign.
Focusing everything I had on it, I managed to keep all my constructs active.
I had eliminated my weakness.
"Interesting," Aizawa-sensei whispered, changing his stance to one I had never seen before. "Perhaps I'll take you a little more seriously." W-wait, what?!
Hold on, what does he mean by-,
I wasn't able to dodge in time as he sprinted towards me, sending a kick to my head while spinning around to elbow me in the stomach. Then after that, he pinned me to the ground and used his capture tape to tie me up tightly. I couldn't move, nor could I move my hands to form another hand sign.
"Well, what do you do now?" He asked me.
"Now? Now I…" I closed my eyes, trying my hardest to resist that urge. To break my arm in order to set my Nimbus on fire, to sacrifice something in order to gain power. It was calling to me, and I was so very tempted to give in to it. But even if I did want to win badly, it wasn't going to be because of that.
If I was going to beat Aizawa-sensei, it was because I had outsmarted him.
"I give up. You win, sensei."
Tch. Even if I did train and improve my Quirk, that was nothing compared to Aizawa-sensei. He didn't need a Quirk to fight, in fact, he thrived from it. What a badass, all he needed was to change his stance and use some cool ass martial arts… FUCK, was I that weak?!
"You've improved."
"Obviously, have your eyes gone bad with old age, or what?"
"Don't take that tone with me, you brat. I'll put you in detention for the rest of the year if you aren't careful."
"Great, another excuse to avoid someone else's detention. Thanks for that."
He smiled at that. "Come on Oboro, you don't need to-," His smile instantly vanished as he stared at me in confusion, and hurt. "My apologies Yamazaki, it seems I was caught up in the moment."
" It's not that big of a deal."
Calling a kid your dead friend's name was sorta weird, but I suppose it was an accident. But despite that, he looked at me oddly. As if, I don't know, it was more than just an accident? Eh, it's not my problem. I walked to where everyone else stood, greeting Kaminari with a fist bump.
"Dude, that fight looked so cool."
"I know right! Did you see what I did with the wolves? Do ya' think I should name them."
"Yeah! How about Sparky and Barky?"
"Nah, those are terrible. I was thinking something along the lines of Chainsaw Ripper and Sword Carver cause' of their fangs."
"That's even worse!"
"No, it's not, idiot. It sounds cool as hell. Chainsaw Ripper, attack!"
"That sounds like you're a kid."
"Fuck you, just because I'm a little short doesn't mean I'm a kid!"
"...I didn't mention your height. Like, at all."
I turned to face Midoriya, who looked at me with a bright smile on his face. "You were able to sidestep the inherent downsides to your Quirk! Not only that, but the possibilities that have been opened to you are-,"
"Thanks, Midoriya, I couldn't have done it without you." I gave him a thumbs-up, "Now you should go and fight Kaplosion. I'll put down a bet on you, so you better not lose or else I'll lose a lot of money. Understand?"
Sadly, he did not understand.
That's all folks! The chapter was originally a little longer, I had planned to deal with Mineta's plot but I decided against it. I feel a little ill, so I thought 'EH, I'll be lazy for a change.' and cut out Mineta's section, only to then come up with an even better idea of how to deal with it. Hehehe.
The counterattack will begin soon!
StarBoundDisaster:
MintEDD:
Aoyama is really interesting to me. He is a traitor, but he isn't THE traitor. Since I started to write this story way before the reveal in the manga, I've always been working on my own 'traitor' so to speak. So I had to address that in this arc, as well as give him his own obstacle to overcome thanks to Sora. Speaking of Sora, will he be okay? Maybe, maybe not.
And Mineta getting his porn... shit, I should have written that!
Ordnassela:
Nope, I haven't created a webnovel account before (Well I have now, only to poke fun at the story though) and so I thank you for bringing it to my attention. Funniest joke ever. And Nejire is funny as hell, I really like her character. She's like a super airhead that comes up with the most bizarre shit you could think of but comes across as endearing.
Plus, she's a badass.
And I agree. Stain (At least in canon) just showed up and left. I personally think every good hero should have their rouge's gallery, like Spider-Man and Batman, and so I sorta want to build a rouge's gallery for 1A as a whole. I mean Iida's is Stain, Todoroki's is obviously Dabi, Midoriya's is Shigaraki, Bakugo's is... well, anyone can really be one. Uraraka and Toga, etc etc. So Stain had to survive and create further chaos with Yozora (A mysterious person in his own right) for Iida to truly grow.
And thank you for the kind comment about me writing romance, ironically I haven't been in a relationship since I was 11 (And it doesn't count, I went out with her on a date once and then ignored her for a week...) Really, I'm just thinking "Oh, relationships are nice and trustworthy. I need to build the level of trust between X and Y in order for it to work!" Therefore, if the romance in my story is working for you, great! That makes me very pleased!
Gina Barron:
I think you want me to review your story? Anyway, thanks for my first 'bot' review.
AshestoDusts:
Thanks for the review! I totally checked out your HP x Skyrim story and the first chapter was fucking cool as hell. But yeah, I really want the world of MHA to be living and breathing on its own, so it feels like even without Sora the world still moves on. Not that Sora's going anywhere, rather I just want him to feel somewhat... unimportant in the grand scheme of things. That is until he decides to fuck shit up.
But even then, he'll be a small pebble in a lake.
And I do agree with you that a majority of SI/OC stories do make their character seem like God - like they are the ones that are right. Sora isn't right, sure he may seem like he's 'helping' his friends out of the goodness in his own heart, but he's helping them become who he thinks they should be. Not who they want to be, which is a difference that has come up, and will come up over and over again.
But that's all for this chapter!
Next time on Over the Top:
Will the counterattack fail? Which villains will appear? Which Heroes will appear?
Who will win, the villains, or the heroes?!