"I can't believe it-"Midoriya said softly under his breath, grouped with Iida, Todoroki, and Bakugo as they studied both matches carefully.
"Everyone on Japan's team had fought heroically. It's unfortunate that they lost the way they had," Iida commented right after.
"If things go the way they have been, it won't be easy for us either." Affirmed Todoroki.
"Why not just give 'em the win if you're going to talk like that!" Fumed Bakugo.
"That's not what he's implying," insisted Midoriya, "we just need to think carefully about how we're going to approach this."
"Think about what? There's nothing to think about; we're going to be out there and burying them under the stadium, dead or alive!"
"Bakugo, that's not what this tournament is about!" Chided Iida.
"You're right. That's not what it's about. It's about making us look like losers! Think about it: why would they bring out everyone we know and look up to? Why the hell were these challenges so asinine? Why is it those bastards had the upper hand every single time and came out on top? I'll tell you why, to embarrass us- to show that we're still weak! Well, I'll be dammed if I let these freaks make a fool out of me. No more trying to hold back! They're dead!" With a final huff, Bakugo stormed off.
There was somber silence between the three boys, and then Midoriya finally spoke, "I think I should go find him."
"Do you think that's a good idea?" Todoroki inquired.
"We haven't seen either Shelby, Keali'i, Yemi or Arjan in a while; I'm worried about what he'll do if he finds them before our match starts."
"You have a point, but if you're leaving, please return on time and be careful," Iida advised.
With an affirming nod, Midoriya began walking through the empty winding hallways, looking around each corner and over troublesome barricades. Still, after minutes of searching vacant corridors, he couldn't find him- or anyone, anywhere. He was sure he'd at least hear Bakugo, but all he could hear was the commotion that was happening outside. A sinking feeling started fermenting in the pit of his stomach, the silence was discouraging as he continued without any clues.
He knew where Bakugo was coming from; the international students of their class were aloof and taciturnly haughty towards them and only them, but why? There had to be some kind of reason; Midoriya stood true to himself. He never thought or expressed negatively of them, but he'd gone through every scenario in his head and couldn't assimilate what possible reason there could be. He tried reaching out multiple times, just like everyone else. Although they didn't respond, it didn't appear out of explicit antipathy but rather an inability, especially towards the upcoming weeks of the U.A. Battle Royale. He was going to get to the bottom of this, one way or another.
After inattentively turning the next corner sharply, he wound up bumping into another body, but their taller, sturdy frame was unmoved.
"Oh, excuse me, I'm sorry, I didn't- Shelby?" Midoriya blurted out in a fluster, then sighed in relief, "I'm so glad it's you, n-not that I was expecting to run into anyone else, it's just that I uh-"
Shelby didn't respond verbally, but she was looking at him, or at least, in his direction, with her head cocked to one side in unsubtle confusion.
"You know what, I think I've embarrassed myself one too many times already today, but before I go, I will say you four are strongest when you're together, there's no doubt about that, but we're going to give everything we got out there so don't go easy on us now, we want a real fight. Good luck."
Just as Midoriya turned to reroute himself back to his friends, he could hear a voice sing out his name, resonating from their chest and produced in a mezzo-soprano dynamic; their dulce tone softened the blow as Midoriya felt as though he'd been struck in the neck, falling face first on the floor upon impact. Only, it wasn't the same floor. The moment he made contact, the ground plumes of feathers flew up and over his body, feeling the silky texture against his palms while tightly clutching together fistfuls. The atmosphere was burdensome with melancholy and remorse as Midoriya felt the same depression overwhelming him; his surroundings were opaque with somber blue hues and blackened, unfathomable edges, and he was unable to recognize where he was immediately. Suddenly, the sound of delicate chirping piqued his interest, prompting him to pick his head up to see two small birds in front of him, looking at him curiously as they fluffed up their feathers.
"Wait, are these...? Shel-!" Before he could call out her name, she was already there, sitting with her back to him, concurrently tying her hair up in the front and letting the length lay against her back.
"-by?" He attempted to recollect himself as best as he could in this situation, but the apprehension of this state exhausted his body, making sitting upright difficult, "Is this-...your quirk..?"
Once more, Shelby didn't respond despite going to the trouble of using her quirk and getting them alone together; was this merely part of a ploy to catch their team off guard before their match, or was there something else to this needless charade?
As he was about to ask more questions, the answers became clear: The turn of events completely dumbfounded Midoriya. A confession? In song? This was a first, and insinuating, in character for Shelby. As she divulged further, however, the air around them became tighter, and the blackness had begun slowly enclosing them; though he could not differentiate who was producing the effect, he could hear quiet, pernicious whispers that were spiteful; they were difficult to infer but sounded discriminatory identity-wise and characteristically. Despite this strange occurrence, her words embedded themselves deep within his core, and he knew that she was telling the truth; whether this was due to her quirk or the genuine timbre of her voice didn't matter to him.
When she finally mustered up the courage to face him, there wasn't any malice in her eyes. Her long eyelashes padded down her tears as they rolled continuously down her cheeks, wiping them away with her hands when they began dripping off her face; even through tears, her singing remained impeccable.
That was enough. No more. Midoroya couldn't handle these feelings anymore- they were just too painful for him; he couldn't stop himself from crying as he'd been crying the entire time. Her tears had become his tears. At least now he knew how she felt, how they all felt. As he tightly hugged her, he could swear the atmosphere suddenly changed the moment he touched her, that all the darkness had vanished instantly and was replaced with a flash of heartfelt, soft red hues.
All this time, Shelby, Yemi, Keali'i, and Arjan were afraid of being ostracized by their peers because of who they were, who they were. When they realized that their classmates were more than willing to put forth the effort into welcoming them with open arms, their original plan built on anxiety made them see that they had made an immature decision to disguise themselves and act untargetable. Still, there was another problem: they didn't know how to fix things properly- they assumed they were too late to change, so they allowed their feelings to fester until they couldn't put up with the guilt anymore.
The other international students would've had to of known of their secret, or else their friendship would be implausible; Mickey and Keali'i both go to U.A. Oceania, and Fatima and Arjan to U.A. Western Europe, how would they not?
"Please, stop! I-I understand what it likes to have someone be cruel to you and hurt you, to feel like you'll never be good enough and no one believes in you, but I don't care if everyone else ends up hating you after today because no one can look past what you've done! I'll always be on your side no matter what because you're my friend, and I care about you!"
Shelby didn't know what to say; she wasn't expecting anything like that to come from Midoriya, but she was happy. She hesitantly wrapped her arms around him in reciprocation. When he picked his head up from her shoulder, the harrowing aura from before dissipated into mellow orange hues, lifting the mortification and distress from his body and replacing those feelings with serenity and relief. They remained nearby once they separated;
"Thank you, Deku. We were hoping we could count on you."
"On me? Why?"
"It's silly, but you're probably the only one who hasn't said a bad thing about us."
"That's it?"
"I know it's not much, but after all the trouble we caused, it means a lot. I'm sorry for using my quirk on you. We'll explain everything later if we need to."
In exchange for his compliance and gratitude, she pecked him lightly on the cheek as another form of apology. Still, his yammering and fidgeting from receiving a simple, platonic gesture left her confused and a little concerned.
"B-By the way, Shelby, uhhh-how do we get out of this?"
"Oh, um, about that-"
"Huh..?"
Midoriya was suddenly struck with a painful sensation in his chest that snapped him back into conjectural reality; Shelby had her hand over his mouth and was trying to shush him while they sat in a different, secluded location.
"Shelby, that hurt!" He muffled loudly behind her hand.
"I know, I know, shhh-"She strained through a hushed voice.
"You dug your nails into my nipple!"
"I know, I'm sorry, I'm sorry-!"
"Listeners, are you ready?! The final match of the first-ever U.A. Battle Royale will begin in just a few minutes!"
Shelby gasped at the sound of Present Mic's voice, hastily darting out the previously closed door and leaving Midoriya in split-second confusion. He realized this was not the place he needed to be right now, and he even agreed that he wouldn't take long- the whole point of venturing out in the first place was to find Bakugo. When he exited the dark storage room, he knew exactly where he was; somehow, he had been moved adjacent to the corner where he found Shelby. Was being able to move someone else's body while they're entranced part of her quirk? There was no time to dwell on what just happened, he needed to get back to his team and fast.
"Midoriya!" Iida shouted as he caught a glimpse of him running towards them.
"Well, look who decided to show up." Condemned Bakugo.
"W-Wait, but I was-"
"Hey, are you okay? Your face is red and puffy." Todoroki commented offhandedly.
"Huh?" Movement wasn't the only thing Shelby could influence, it seems, "Is my face red? I hadn't noticed!"
"Nevertheless, are we ready now? We need to be physically and mentally prepared to go out; I highly doubt they'll be breaking the pattern the others had set. We must expect them to use their quirks at full strength." Informed Iida.
"Yeah, yeah, let's get out there already!" Bakugo, who wasn't in the mood to hear necessities, interjected quickly.
Iida, Todoroki, and Bakugo led the group toward their destination while Midoriya staggered behind them, lost in thought:
"This is bad. If I tell them what happened, they won't believe me, and even if they did, they'd think they were trying to divide our team, but if I don't tell them, they might end up seriously hurting them- what if they're so humiliated they refuse to show themselves? If I do tell them, though, what difference would it make? Todoroki might see things my way and Iida too, but there's no way Bakugo would let them get away with what they've done. Also, Shelby didn't tell me if they planned anything for our match. Are they going to use the same force as always or are they going to be lenient because of the occasion- what degree is even considered lenient to them? Either way, I can't protect the four of them while holding back three other people. They'll notice something is off eventually, and if we end up losing because of me, everyone will have seen so for themselves-"
Midoriya began mumbling to himself quietly as he trailed deeper in thought, piling on concepts that led to more questions. Iida and Todoroki were putting up his ramblings and trying their best to ignore them, but Bakugo couldn't listen any further.
"Shut up, you damn nerd! We're about to leave!"
"Ah! O-Oh right, uh s-sorry!"
In pure, complete panic, "What am I supposed to do?!"