Dear reader, Suzume wrote, scowling down at the page before her. Dear reader.
Fuck.
She started again.
Dear reader. I wish I could tell you that you will like this story. But you won't. A story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. And that ending, should it be happy or sad, should at least be satisfying.
But this is not.
This is not a story, this is truth. There is no hope in the final words, there is no light gleaned from somewhere in the ink.
There is only.
An end.
And there is no satisfaction in only an end.
But for now I will give you the beginning.
In the city of West Chase, there was a private investigator, a spy, and an actress…
Suzume glared down at her computer. She liked writing, up until she became a damn writer!
She's published a few of her shorter 'stories' online, and the response was startling. Ravenous. She hadn't know that anyone cared that much for pre-quirk stories, or detective noirs anymore. They seemed so old school in this world. But they were vintage, she guessed, and the truth shone out of the pages as she wrote them, all the strange and horrible things that she had seen and bore witness to.
There was an actress who never lied. There was a spy who called on angels. And there was a detective who never pulled her gun.
People liked the character she had turned Suzanna Hemmings into! She wasn't totally autobiographical, that would be just weird, but most everything was true. And that was how she found herself in the fifteenth full book in a series that she was slowly publishing online, on piece at a time. She had seen people start assigning star signs and playlists to characters that weren't… actually characters, but people who might as well have been dead.
Like assigning a playlist to King Henry VIII's or something.
Which didn't hurt anything, and she could look at fanart and see who was close and who was way off. She wouldn't touch fanfiction though. Reading fanfiction about yourself was just-
No.
Nope.
'Sold to One Direction' still lived rent free in her head, thank you very much, and real person fanfiction had always struck her as, if not harmful, very weird.
So the rise of Hamilton had smacked her in the face like a dead trout.
They met when a man was murdered in an office full of the dead. An 'egyptologist' a glorified grave robber really, was murdered and his office ransacked. The detective's presence was obvious. She specialized in the dead.
The actress?
She was a vision. Starlight made flesh and glitter in her smile, a promise tucked into her dimples and soft eyes and didn't tear up even in the face of a dead man. His head was pulped under a shattered sarcophagus, and she wore a relic of gold on her throat. The jewels of a queen, lended to her for a party of all things.
And the spy was there because he wanted to be.
Because fu-
"Fuck!" Suzume jolted when the train came to a sharper stop than usual. She swore, and snapped her laptop closed before cramming it into her bag and scrambling off the train and onto the busy platform.
It wasn't as busy as it usually was when she was on it, since there were less kids there going to school and less people on their way to work, but she still had to duck and dodge her fair share of travellers on her way out of the station and up the hill to UA.
Next year, she thought, I'm getting one of those electric scooter to ride up the hill so I don't have to walk the whole way. Fuck this noise.
She thought that, but Suzume knew the truth. She would run the hill every single day, in her increasingly heavy weights, the entire time she went to the school. It was good, important training.
It might stunt her growth if she wasn't careful, but she was small anyways so who cared.
More time to crawl through vents and all that.
She was sweating lightly when she finally crested the hill and found about half of her classmates waiting outside the UA gates, where two huge busses were parked. One of her class, one for 1-B.
She paused when she saw some of the 1-B kids loitering. They didn't have a lot of time to see each other. Mostly lunch, and there everyone stuck to their friends or ate alone if they were so inclined. Suzume was still getting over the novelty of finding out that she was eating lunch with other people, instead of alone. Even if she did still spend more of the time reading.
And standing next to a slight girl with a bob cut was… Ashai? No, Shihai.
Suzume ignored the wave from Toru to meander over to the pair of them. The short girl, who was holding a squirt gun of all things, didn't seem to notice that Shihai wasn't able to make direct eye contact with her.
It was kind of funny.
Suzume hide a grin and stopped with a tap of her heels on the concrete.
"Hey."
They stare at her.
"Hi?" the girl asks more than greets, looking up at her. Suzume only knows because her head tilts back. Her bangs still cover her eyes in their entirety.
Suzume assumes she's being looked at. Anything else would be weird. She looks at Shihai, his dark face hiding most of his expression save his eyes, which are just as confused at the girls tone had been.
"Shouldn't you be with your class?" he asks, nodding towards the others from 1-A..
Suzume shrugs.
"Why should I? We aren't leaving yet and we're all going to the same place, right?"
"Wait, you're not riding on our bus, are you?" he asks suspiciously.
Well she wasn't planning on that. But it sounded like fun.
At the very least it would give her a chance to cause problems on purpose and terrorize Vlad King and his weird scabby quirk.
But it was possible that she shouldn't do that. She didn't think that it would matter at all if she was on their bus or her own, but it might be interesting to see how class 1 B worked. If she remembered they were more… cohesive than her own class. And that was before Suzume, outsider of her own admission, was added to the pot.
But all the same she shakes her head.
"No, I just felt like coming over to say hi. I haven't gotten the chance and at the Sports Festival I said we could do some training together. I don't want you to think that I'm going back on that or anything. It's just been… busy. You know, final exams, serial killers, all that noise."
"Oh. Oh right! You were in the group that ran into the Hero Killer," Shihai recalled.
His classmates who overhear turn towards them, muttering quietly.
Suzume's eye twitches. Maybe she's been getting a little too friendly. Her scowl probably won't even scare them away now.
Damn.
Losing her touch huh?
Too bad.
"I mean, yeah. There were like four of us and that pro hero, Native. But I was there so-"
"Can you tell us about it?!"
Suzume stares at the boy that's just appeared at her side. It's all she can do not to elbow him in the face for surprising her. The group of students has grown as everyone starts filtering in and their leaving time gets closer and closer.
"About… the serial killer?" she clarifies, staring at him. He nods rapidly, and a few other nod along with him, apparently in ear shot.
She was just here to chat not give a fucking play by play!
"Hah!"
Someone laughs, cutting her off. She glances over to see Monoma pointing at her, grinning like an idiot.
"You really want a story from someone from class 1-A? Those psychopaths can't even go a month without getting into some kind of trouble! I bet they- ouch!"
Kendo smacks him in the head before his rant can get even more unhinged, scowls down at him, and forcibly drags him onto their bus.
Suzume considers the little nut case.
It's her personal opinion that he has one of the most flexible, useful quirks out of anyone that she's ever met. But he's a goddamn lunatic with an inferiority complex the size of his ego.
So, roughly the size of the bus.
Suzume glances at the spikey haired boy who wanted her story.
"Well I might have tagged along on your bus and told you what happened, but now it's looking like I better get back to my own class."
He, and a couple others, groan in despair.
Suzume's mouth twitches.
"I'll tell you guys what happened some other time. It's really not that exciting."
"You fought the Hero Killer! And won!"
She can see Monomo lean out the window trying to shout at her, with Kendo holding him by his collar like a leash.
"Yeah, and I've got the scar on my neck to prove it."
She tilts her head and jabs a thumb at the line on her throat.
Monoma's jaw shuts so fast she can't believe he doesn't breath his teeth and the kids in front of her hiss or recoil. Like they just realizes that this isn't a story from a comic book, but her and other teenagers actually almost dying.
What weird people.
Suzume waves and leaves them in that awkward silence.
Toru bounces onto her and Suzume catches her one armed with ease. The invisible girl wraps her legs around Suzume's hips to hold herself there and starts gesturing with her arms as she chatters at her.
"What was that? Who were you talking to? Why did it look like you just told them all that their dogs died?"
Suzume snorts at her, and keeps one arm around Toru's middle to keep her in place.
"That was Shihai, he's in class 1- B. I fought him at the sports festival remember? They wanted me to tell them about Stain, and I said I would some other time."
"Oh yeah?" Toru leans around her to look at the gathered other class, who are all starting to file onto their bus. "That weird blond guy is in their class right?"
"Monoma? Yeah, he's over there."
"I don't think I like him."
"I think he needs a smack harder than Kendo is willing to give him."
Toru starts giggling, and hops down off of Suzume. They're joined a minute later by Mina and Ururuaka, who have dropped their gear off in the luggage bins under the bus. Iida is starting to shout, ordering people to load onto the bus.
Suzume reluctantly puts her bag down there to join the rest, and climbs onto the bus with a book in hand and her vambraces tucked in the pockets of her skirt.
She finds herself squished between Toru and the window, and she cracks open her book and tucks herself into the corner. Her favorite seats are the little single seats in the very back where the emergency exit door is and there's room enough to stretch her legs, but this will work well enough.
She barely notices all of the chatter going on around her. She's focused as intently as she can on the pages in front of her. If she looks at Katsuki, Midoriya, Yaomomo, Shouto, or anyone else that was on I Island she's going to start thinking about Melissa again. And then her face is going to turn red and her mind is going to start racing through nonsense.
Because Melissa is a sweet girl! Suzume does thing that she's nice, and she's pretty to boot, but was it okay to kiss her?
Admittedly, it wasn't Suzume's idea but she should have seen it coming! Right?
Katsuki had known exactly what had happened when she had rejoined them, her face so hot you could cook an egg on it and Melissa just as flustered.
It wasn't even bad.
It was just.
Melissa was seventeen!
And Suzume wasn't!
But is she older or younger than her?
Suzume is younger but Suzanna was older. And Suzume still feels like a teenager. She thinks. But Suzanna hadn't been an adult for long when she died so most of her life experience is just two different life experiences of a weird teenager, not long life experience of an adult.
And the problem with intergenerational relationships in the first place is a power imbalance, and Suzume would never use any power to influence someone else into acting the way she wanted, not in a relationship like that. That would be a bitch move! And similarly, Melissa wouldn't, and Suzume would never be involved with anyone who would.
So she doesn't know. Is she an adult or a long teenager?
What's the morality of dating someone if you're undead?!
Suzume shakes her head violently to try to clean out the thoughts that she was trying to avoid.
Goddamn it!
And that's not even going into the part where she now has to question what her feelings towards Melissa are, and figure out what her damn sexuality in this life is!
Her head thumps against the window and she stares desperately at the pages in front of her, and begs her head to shut the fuck up.
Suzume wishes, maybe for the first time, that she knows someone else like her. Someone who can give her the answers to these questions.
Maybe I'll just wait to date until I'm thirty, and then nothing matters.
Assuming I live that long this time.
'Thump' goes her head on the window.
Toru pokes her cheek.
"Whatcha thinkin' about?"
Suzume eyes the invisible finger pressed into her skin.
She looks at Toru.
"This is the song that never ends, it goes on and on my friends. Somebody started singing it not knowing what it was. And we'll just keep on singing it, and singing it because…"
Toru laughs loudly, startling a few folks near them.
"What?" Kaminari asks.
She beams at him. Literally. Toru sparkles when she's excited.
"This is the song that never ends, it goes on and on my friends. Somebody started singing it not knowing what it was. And we'll just keep on singing it, and singing it because this is the song that never ends, it goes on and on my friends. Somebody started singing it not knowing what it was. And we'll just keep on singing it, and singing it because this is the song that never ends, it goes on and on my friends. Somebody started singing it not knowing what it was. And we'll just keep on singing it, and singing it because this is the song that never ends, it goes on and on my friends. Somebody started singing it not knowing what it was. And we'll just keep on singing it, and singing it because-"
Slowly, one by one, the other kids in the class either grown or join in until they driving down a mountain road screaming it at passersby in other cars.
Aizawa in the front looks like he wants to put his head through the steering wheel.
Suzume has grown numb to repeating verses by the time they pull over in the middle of the mountains.
Even if she didn't know what's going to happen, Suzume would know that something is about to happen.
Along with her classmates she piles out onto the opening beside the road. Forest stretches for miles around and Suzume tilts her head and inhales the welcome scent of pine and decay, blossoms and new growth. The air is clean and rich with plant life and earth, even this close to a road.
A cool breeze ruffles her hair, lifting her bangs away from her face and bringing her bird song and the rustling of leaves.
How long has it been since she's left a city?
Years, at least.
Everyone else piles out and looks over the landscape with her.
Out of the corner of her eyes, she can see Bakugou eying not just her, but also Midoriya.
She doesn't know what its all about. And honestly she doesn't know if she wants to know what he's thinking about. Whatever it is, it's bound to spell trouble for her.
She doesn't know where the other class is either. They must be taking a different route to the training camp in the mountains.
A car, non descript and there for not belonging to the FBI or whatever, comes to a half at the side of the road, and the door swings open.
"Heya Eraser!" A voice called out. Two young women came climbing out in Tokyo Mew Mew cosplay. Or, hero gear, possibly.
Aizawa suddenly looks more tired than usual.
"Long time no see," he says cordially, and wisely steps out of the way as the pair bounce towards the high schoolers.
"Your feline fantasies are here! Say Meow!" The brunette began, lifting her… paws?
"Purr-fectly cute and cat-like girls!" the blonde continues, doing the same. Together, obviously rehearsed, they strike a dynamic pose.
"You can call us, The Wild Wild Pussycats!" The finish together.
Suzume stares.
It's one of the silliest things she's ever seen and she will die before she admits that she desperately wants to try it.
Suzume glances at the little boy who climbs out of the car behind them, looking unamused.
Traumatized little kid.
So not my strong suit. What am I gonna say? Yep, life sucks, get up anyways? Thats real nice.
"The Pussy-Cats are pro heroes that are going to be helping us train," Aizawa explains blandly.
Midoriya, naturally, starts geeking out over the heroes until the blonde on, Pixie Bob, shuts him up.
Mandalay points to a mountain. "Your lodging is at the base of that mountain over there. If you hurry, you'll make it in time for lunch! This whole area is out territory, we own it all. So." Her smile turns oddly sadistic, and her tail starts twitching like a cat ready to pounce.
A few kids who are quicker on the uptake start running for the bus. Suzume stares down at the forest, and tenses.
"Sorry kids," Aizawa says, not sounding sorry at all. "But the training's already started."
All Pixie Bob does is touch the ground. The earth heaves, shifts, and the mountain erupts beneath them.
"You've got three hours to reach the facility on foot, feel free to use your quirks to make it through the Beast's Forest!"