Renegade

A Man Walks Into A Bar

Disclaimer: I do not own My Hero Academia, or any of the associated characters. All rights belong to Kōhei Horikoshi.

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The red-haired bartender heard the ringing of the bell just within the edges of earshot.

"I'll be there in just a second!"

She was just thinking about closing up for the night when her latest customer came in through those doors. It had been a slow night so far—a couple of regulars came in but didn't linger long, perhaps because of the off-putting atmosphere, the lack of boisterous laughter coming from some corner of the room, or just the sudden abundance of empty spaces in a place that was used to having every other table occupied, even on weekday nights. She had been tuning in to the news all day and hadn't heard about anything particularly disconcerting—at least, not one that would affect her sales of tonight. Then again, a relative and rather surprising quietness in the streets also meant there weren't a lot of people with baggage that needed to be lifted with the help of alcohol—her alcohol.

But it appeared that there was at least one other person who needed a little help tonight, and Ren was always more than happy to serve.

She finished cashing in the last of the change and loosened her ponytail as she pushed the office door open and headed back out to the bar.

"Welcome to Pluto," she greeted, pushing a smile back to her face, then finished re-tying her ponytail before looking up to meet her customer. "What can I get you tonight, sir—"

Her hands froze midway to the top of her head as soon as her eyes fell on the ragged-looking man standing on the other side of the bar.

A pair of half-opened black eyes glanced up and met hers. The man frowned.

"What?" he drawled out, clearly taking notice of her expression. "Something wrong?"

Something in the back of her mind told her she should be crying right now. That was how people often reacted at times like these, right? The typical person would burst out in tears, screaming and sobbing and falling down into a heaping mess right where they stood.

For some reason, however, Ren simply blinked, the gears in her brain still grinding, still trying to process the sight before her, even as her limbs began to move like pre-programmed automatons that didn't give two shits about their fried computer processor.

"Err, no." She took a deep breath, blinked, and sighed. Her hands fell back down to her sides. She almost laughed. "No, nothing's—" She cleared her throat. "Nothing's wrong."

"Hmph." The man was clearly not pleased with her answer but started to approach the bar anyway. "Well, you looked like you just saw a ghost there. A bit rude, if you ask me. I hope you don't greet all your customers that way."

"I mean." She looked down. She didn't even feel the smile on her face as she briefly averted her gaze away to smooth down the creases on her uniform. "Can you blame me?"

When her gaze rose back up again, she saw confusion written all over the rugged man's face. "Hm?"

She blinked a couple more times, staring straight into his dark eyes. There was no mistake—he looked exactly like he did the last time she saw him on television just a few days ago. Well, all with the exception of his mustard-yellow goggles, which she was sure she saw a brief glimpse of just behind the white strips of cloth draped around his neck.

"Do you... not remember me?" Now, she really felt like laughing. "Well, I guess it's been a while since you last saw me, huh? It's been like, what—a little over ten years now? I only reached up to your, like, waistline back then, and look at me now—I'm almost a little past your shoulders."