Super Science
Ch 104: Team Work Makes the Dream Work part. 3
"What in the actual fuck were you doing back there?!", Rei yelled at him as the hunters all converged in the staff room after resting from their failed mission.
She slammed her hands on the table, staring daggers at Keanu, who had his feet up and looked extremely nonchalant, even as the woman looked ready to murder him with her owl sharing the sentiment.
"My best.", the man replied.
"Well, your "best" ended up getting all of us nearly fucked and on our final test of all things!", Rei yelled at him again as Yoko hissed.
"We've been training with one another for weeks. You should have some kind of idea or synergy when it comes to teamwork.", Fujitora added, trying to hold his composure, sitting nearby with an unpleasant expression alongside the growling king hounds.
"Hey, I'm the one who carries this team.", Keanu argued boastfully.
"Yeah, to failure! And the only thing you can do is act like a living Swiss army knife!", Rei yelled at him again, smacking his feet off the table.
Keanu finally shifted to irritation with her and snapped, "Say the girl and her pet binoculars."
"That's enough for you two!", Fujitora finally exploded before the woman could explode over him. After taking a calming breath, she pulled the woman away and said, "Come on, Rei, let go."
Rei stuck back for a minute, but only to growl at him, before finally turning around and following the man and his dogs, her owl's head being the only thing still staring at him with narrowed eyes. The automatic doors opened, and the two hunters and their pets left for a different part of the staff area, leaving Keanu alone…or so he thought. Looking to his side, he saw Kai mindlessly tapping away at his game station with the volume off and no headphones. He definitely heard everything but did not leave with the others as he expected.
So, turning to the younger man, he asked aggressively, "And why are you still here?"
"Why are you like this?", Kai asked without looking up.
"Like what?", Keanu asked back.
"So unnecessarily confrontational.", Kai replied.
"I am not!", Keanu aggressively argued.
"Are you sure?", Kair asked while looking up from his game to give a raised eyebrow stare.
Keanu blew a raspberry and shot back, "Why do you even care?"
Kai rationalized, "Everyone has a reason for why they act the way they do. No one does something for no reason."
"That's debatable.", Keanu told him.
"So why are you like this?", Kai repeated his question.
"You wouldn't get it even if I tried to explain it.", Keanu said dismissively.
"Try me.", Kai offered while putting his game down.
Unbeknownst to Keanu, Kai had begun to use his quirk. Most people didn't know that Kai was an empath and could sense what others were feeling at any given time, so long as he concentrated. So right now, he could sense fear, anger, and apprehension in the man. So he removed the apprehension, left the irritation, put it into himself, and allowed the man to open up to him, even if it was out of a lesser form of anger.
"I guess…If I had to put it in some kind of way…it would be…a habit.", Keanu described with much confusion as Kai was feeling.
"Habit?", Kai prompted, inviting a sense of calm into Keanu.
Feeling comfortable, Keanu suddenly blabbered out, "Yes, habit. When I was terminally ill, I had nothing left to live for as I wouldn't live for much longer. So I pushed away the people I love and deflected my pain in the only way I could.", the man's eyes then shot open. He grabbed his head while exclaiming, "Holy shit, did I just have a moment of self-reflection and self-awareness?"
Kai then tilted his head in confusion and inquired, "Then why do you still act like this? You're healthy again, right? So why keep deflecting and pushing away? You were hired to work together with us; sure, you're hired onto a suicide squad, but you were given a chance. Shouldn't you take your second life?", he offers the man, putting a sense of confidence and determination into him.
After mulling this over briefly, Keanu asked Kai, "How do you know so much?"
"I watch a lot of soap operas and slice-of-life anime.", Kai replied casually.
"That's a bad basis for real life," Keanu said with a sweat drop before looking at the door the other hunters left through. He rubbed his face and said, "Okay, I think I know what to do."
Keanu got up from his seat, made his way to the door, centered himself, and stepped near the sensor where the door opened. He walked through as Kai looked on from his game with a slight smile. When he entered, he saw Rei readying a woman's magazine while Fujitora was brushing the hounds. Both eyes looked up at him, and both faces constricted into differing emotions.
Rei was the first to speak up and growl at him, "Oh god, what do you want now?"
Keanu centered himself, took a breath, and said, "I just want to ap-p-p-p-p-p-p."
Both adults looked at one another before looking back at the man, where they both asked in confusion, "What?"
"Im s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s.", Keanu tried again, making another painful expression.
"Come again?", Fujitora asked, looking concerned.
"Did you hit your head? You're starting to freak me out.", Rei asked, looking concerned for herself and standing up to back away.
Keanu held his breath for a long while, then let it all out and stressed, "Geeze, am I really so bad at being sorry? Maybe I do have a problem."
"You…came here to say sorry? To us?", Rei asked in genuine confusion, looking back and forth between him and Fujitira, who only shrugged.
Kenau slaps his face and groans in self-disappointment, "So I did, and I'm failing, and I'm not used to it. I guess I just got used to being a jerk."
"Did Kai give you a self-reflective talk or something?", Rei joked as Fujitior tried not to smile.
"Actually, that's exactly what he did," Keanu confirms, causing both people to look at him in surprise. He sighs in aggravation and tells them, "Look, I know it hasn't been the easiest to work with me or at all. But I'm willing to change if you guys are willing to give me a chance."
Both adults look at one another, then back at Keanu, and think to themselves for a bit. Fujitora was the first to speak this time and said, "I don't see a reason not to."
Rei stews on this for much longer, and her face twists with many emotions until she finally relents and says with compromise, "Fine. But only because it'll be funny to see you get hurt."