Sorry I didn't get to post this last saturday, I had to leave town and didn't get a chance. I wish FFN would let me schedule chapter posts ahead of time! This ones pretty simple though.
I guess to make up for it, you get two chapters in two days this week?
The TV is replaced with a shitty junk one that Suzume would swear blind came out of Twice's apartment instead of anywhere that AFO would put a bug on it.
That doesn't mean she's taking any chances. She's going to have to be more careful from now on, since it's in the room. She's already left out precious details from Hitoshi that she doesn't want anyone else overhearing, in case the worse comes to worse.
Of course, the 'worst comes to worse' would be AFO having some kind of horrific mind reading quirk, but those are some of the rarest of the rare, and if he had one of those to begin with it would have changed a million things.
That, she's sure, she would remember.
Toga brings Suzume and Hitoshi to a booth to sit at, while Twice is sent to get one Bakugou Katsuki.
Suzume feels bad for him.
She really, really does. Sort of.
He did decide to be here.
None the least because he comes back with a bruised cheek, whining about how awful everyone is and simultaneously threatening to drive Katsuki off a bridge.
The man is going to give Suzume whiplash at this rate.
Katsuki is…
Not as bad off as Hitoshi had been.
He's got a bruised cheek, but nothing is bandaged and he isn't limping. His cheeks are flushed though, and he's shivering badly. Suzume might actually be hurt worse, with the bite marks on her neck.
The only thing truly out of the ordinary for him is the big metal mittens on his hands.
Suzume's going out on a limb and saying they're keeping him from sweating. That would explain the shivering, the point of the mittens, and why he was in the back of a restaurant. What else is back there? A loading dock?
…
Suzume never worked food service.
But it doesn't matter, because they plop a not-gagged and very swearing Katsuki down in the booth with them.
The three of them squeeze together in the booth, with her and Hitoshi on either size of the scuffed up Bakugou. His skin is cold to the touch, and she levels an equally cold glare at Twice. who twitches away from her like she's suddenly developed laser eyes or something equally ridiculous.
"Don't look at me like that! We had to do it, he would have blown our face off otherside! Yeah, he's crazy."
The two(?) men are like a ping pong match and Suzume has no idea how to respond to any of it. They aren't wrong, he probably would have taken some skin off if they hadn't gone to those measures.
Still, she doesn't like seeing him in such a state. His teeth are starting to chatter, and as the outside air hit him he rubbed his arms with those metal mitts, as if trying to chase away ants.
The room is crowded with people by then. The Bartender, the crazy blond, the ginger woman. the lizard man, the middle-highschooler, the char man, the split pair...
A door opens, and in all his hoodie covered glory in marches their fearless leader.
Their fearless leader, who looks like he hadn't slept at all the night before.
Maybe he hadn't, after his discussion with Suzume.
She certainly wouldn't have, and she would have reacted even more poorly than he had.
Suzume watches him stride across the room on long legs. There are red tracks on his neck from all the scratching he did last night, and she tries not to twitch at the sight.
It's not like it's her fault.
Not really.
The tick is all his own, and what she'd said had to be said at some point, by someone.
And it just so happened that the only one able to say it was her.
Suzume watches him make his way to the middle of the room. She can practically see him rehearsing the words in his head before he says them.
Shigaraki Tomura is many things.
Dangerous, complicated, immature, standoffish, rude, blunt, loyal in the weirdest way.
But he is not what Suzume would call charismatic.
And that's coming from a girl who has all the charisma of a rock.
"Let's get started, hmm? The three of you haven't seen the news lately, but you all made the front page."
He stepped aside, and let the TV flicker on.
Aizawa, the principal, and Vlad King all appear, each one dressed in a suite instead of their usual hero gear.
Suzume pressed her mouth into a thin line, and fiddles with her scrunchy as the press conference begins. Aizawa, all cleaned up in a suit with his hair out of his face for once, leans forwards toward the microphone.
"We deeply apologize for the incident that allowed harm to come to 27 first years of the hero course because of our unpreparedness. We apologize for causing unease in society due to our negligence in properly defending ourselves as a place of learning. We are truly sorry."
She believes him too.
He's going to think it's his fault that all of this happened, because he couldn't stop it. That wasn't right. It wasn't his fault. In some ways its her fault, for letting it happen in the first place. For not giving anyone else more warning.
But mostly?
It's Shigaraki's fault. It's Toga's fault, and Twice's, and Dabi's, Mustards and Magne's and Spinners.
They made their choices. They chose to attack a camp of teenagers.
And more than anyone else's fault it was AFO's, for orchestrating this whole damn thing. From Shigaraki's childhood to the present day.
How did you drag someone like that down for good?
(by killing them.)
The camera pans to a reporter.
"I'm from Yomiuri TV. Since the beginning of the year, UA High School students have had four encounters with villains. This time, there were even students injured. How did you explain to their families, and what are some specific countermeasures you are taking?"
This time, it's the principle who leans forwards. "We will increase policing in the surrounding area and review the security within the school, ensuring the students' safety with a strong position."
They cut away to a commercial break of all things.
"It's so strange," Shigaraki spreads his arms from the bar, the words coming out easy and very clearly practiced. Suzume would bet money they planted a reporter in there to ask questions. "Why are the heroes being criticized? The way they were dealing with things was just a little off the mark. Their response was just a little too slow. Is it because it's their job to protect the students? Everyone makes a mistake or two. Are they supposed to be perfect? Modern-day heroes have so many rules."
"Don't you think, Bakugo, Shinsou, Yusada?"
Spinner speaks for the first time since suzume got here. "Once heroes receive compensation to protect people, they aren't heroes anymore. That is Stain's teaching."
"Oh, you mean the guy who tried to cut my throat?" Suzume snarks.
Spinner looks away, fast. Shigaraki takes up his baton, his rough voice rasping with the words.
"The strange system of transforming people's lives into money or glory… The society that sticks tight to those rules. The citizens who blame the losers rather than encourage them. Our fight is to question: What is a hero? What is justice? Is this society truly just? We'll have everyone thinking about it. All the unfairness of the system that we live under. We're planning on showing them all, and planning on winning."
His red eyes skate across Hitoshi, Suzume, and land on Katsuki.
"You like winning, too, right?"
Katsuki slams his hands on the table, making the metal mittens clink. A screw falls down by Suzume's feet. She sees his wrists flex.
There are other screws missing in those mittens.
"Fuck you!"
Mr. Compress gestures vaguely to the mittens, and to Hitoshi's red mouth.
"I wasn't a fan of using such forceful methods. But you have to understand that we are not just a mob trying to commit arbitrary crimes."
"This isn't an act of cruelty. Crimes of cruelty are one thing, but crimes of necessity are another."
Something cold slithers down Suzume's spine as her own words drip out of Shigaraki's mouth. Words that she had never said to him directly. The tall villain approaches them, gesturing vaguely. It's a good speech, even if it half hearted at best.
"Even though our situations differ, everyone here has been restricted and suffered because of people. Everyone here has been failed by society, including the three of you."
Katsuki takes a swing, and blasts Shigaraki in the face.
Father goes flying.
Metal shatters against the wall, and a piece of shrapnel embeds itself in Suzume's side. She shouts, but it's drowned out by the rest of the commotion.
"Shigaraki!"
"Do you ever shut up?" Bakugou demands, "I listened quietly to your endless talking. Idiots can't get to the point, so they're always babbling for a long time. Basically, you mean "We wanna get people to hate us, so please join us," right? Don't bother. I've already been won over, by the way All Might looks when he's winning!"
"You all can say what you want, but nothing can change my mind about that!"
The room goes still, and the only thing moving is the smoke rising from Bakugou's hands, and the TV screen, where their teachers have reappeared.
Another reporter raises his hand. One that Suzume recognizes all too well. Fury flashes through her, and she knows exactly what he's going to say before he even says it. He smiles too wide and his camera lense eyes shine in the lights.
"And what about the girl? The one taken, the quirkless child you allowed to win the sports festival earlier this year. Have you looked into her Yakuza connection?"
She feels Hitoshi and Katsuki stiffen, but she doesn't look at either of them. Her side is too warm, and her mind is spinning. There's a twitch on Aizawa's cheek when he addresses the reporter.
"No one let Yusada win anything at the sports festival. You do a disservice to all of our students by implying as much. Further more-"
"You mean 'Kono' don't you? Kono Suzume. Daughter of convicted murderer Kono Sanjirou"
"Yusada Suzume is a UA student," Nezu interrupts, "With as much a right to study here as any other. The sins of the father are not the sins of the daughter. Or the son."
Suzume blinks a few times in surprise.
They were defending her. She shouldn't be this surprised but-
She can't help it.
Someone else jumps in, "You spoke about the students' safety, Eraser Head. During the incident, it appears you urged them to fight. What was your intention behind this?"
"I concluded that because we were unable to fully grasp the situation, it had to be done in order to avoid the worst possible outcome."
"What do you mean by "worst possible outcome"? You don't call 26 victims and three abducted the worst possible outcome?"
"The "worst outcome" I assumed in that situation was that the students would be at their wits' end and be killed."
"The gas attack accounts for most of the victims. We've determined that it was a sleeping gas from one of the enemies' Quirks. Thanks to the quick response of two of our Class 1-B student, there were no serious injuries from that attack."
Mustard scoffs.
"In addition, we are providing mental care to the students, but at the moment, we do not see any signs of serious psychological trauma."
"Are you saying that it was a bright spot in this tragedy?"
"We believe that the worst outcome is one that would have infringed on the future."
"Can you say the same thing for the kidnapped students? They enrolled at UA with excellent marks and all three were finalists in the Sports Festival. In addition, during an incident with the sludge villain in middle school, Bakugou resisted the powerful villain alone, so he has a history of showing how tough and heroic he can be."
"On the other hand, the violence he showed in the finals and his attitude at the award ceremony show that he is not always very stable mentally. The other boy, Shinsou Hitoshi, has a documented history of concerning quirk usage."
Camera Eye starts up again, "Kono, also, has a long history of starting fights in school and has been detained on vigilante charges more than once."
It's like watching sharks circle. More reporters are jumping on the train.
"What if the villains kidnapped them because they had an eye on that? Kidnapping them with deceitful words, and coaxing them down the path of evil? What evidence do you have for saying that any of them have a future? Yakuza, fights, quirk abuse! These are the students that you laud so highly?"
Suzume makes a quiet note that when she gets out of here, she's going to break those lenses on his eyes. And if she doesn't get out of here somehow…
Eh. Toga would probably stab him if she asks nicely enough.
Aizawa takes a breath.
"As an educator, I take full responsibility for Katsuki Bakugo's violent behavior. However, his actions at the sports festival originate in his incredible drive to be the best. He is trying as hard as anyone in his pursuit of becoming the top hero. If the villains saw that and thought they had an opening, then I believe they are being short-sighted."
"Additionally, Shinsou Hitoshi has spent his entire year at UA working to transfer himself into the hero course from general studies. We all saw the pay off from that in the Sports Festival. There wasn't a single competitor in the festival who wasn't giving it their all to get the top positions."
"If I may," Nezu waves his hand, and a projector flashes to life over his shoulder. "I will Yusada speak in her own defense, from an interview we hold with some of our students upon their admission."
"Wait, what?"
"Miss Yusada. Why do you want to be a hero?"
"I want to be a hero because in the entire world, there is only one person who believes that I can be. I want to be a hero because for my entire life everyone I've ever known has told me that it's not possible. That because I don't have a quirk, I'll never be up to snuff. I want to be a hero because-"
"Because I'm not the only one. I'm not the only one who's been told that this goal is impossible or foolhardy. If - When , I make it, I will be the first. There's not a single hero without a quirk anywhere. Not in Japan, or America, or Europe. There are people like me who will never be afforded the opportunity to chase their dreams, all because of the circumstances of our birth. I've heard it touted as random chance, or even something as silly as destiny. Destined for mediocrity. It's not right. All because of how I was born… If fate came at you swinging, wouldn't you fight back?"
Suzume stares at the screen. She can see her own eyes burning like a coal fire. Was that really how she looked?
If fate came at you swinging, wouldn't you fight back?
"That is not evidence, though! This isn't a question of how you feel- I'm asking whether or not you have a concrete plan in place."
"We are not just standing around idly. We are currently investigating along with the police. We will definitely get our student back."
Suzume looks at the other people in the room. It's harder than it should be for her to incline her head to the TV.
"I made my decision already," she says quietly. "This is how I fight back."