This Thing A Quiet Madness Made

Chapter 36

"That's not it! Mineta was up there for almost an hour and he didn't see anything! What if she really is a ghost?!"

"Dude, I was kidding!" Sero laughed, elbowing him.

Jirou sighed halfheartedly as the two began bickering and pushing each other around, barely able to stifle a laugh when Kirishima got kicked in the process of trying to calm them down.

They would never change, she concluded with a soft smile, taking another bite of her food.

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Uraraka took a deep, shaky breath as she stood at the end of the hallway. For some reason, it seemed much longer than usual, the bright lights overhead remaining steady and warm, the emptiness of the corridor revealing nothing out of place, yet her heart still pounded as if she was expecting something to leap out at her. Logically, she knew she shouldn't have been so nervous; if the Commission's statement was true, Unknown had been working for them for quite a long time, even before she met her as Ito Naoko. She had been working hard to bring down Sacrosanct while everyone around her remained blissfully unaware of the kinds of things she had gone through. She couldn't be a bad person, right?

That's right. All the things she had done in the past were because of the Manager's influence. Uraraka had read the Commission's full report as soon as they released it so many months ago; she knew Unknown hadn't been raised the way most people had, the way she had. The Manager had fed her a skewed worldview for years upon years, ever since she was a child; he twisted her sense of morality, using his quirk to shape her into a weapon- a killer. It wasn't her fault, right? There was nothing she could have done, right? Were it up to her, surely Unknown would never have chosen such a life for herself. She was simply a victim of circumstance.

Right?

She couldn't be a bad person. If she was, she never would have passed up the countless opportunities she had to hurt them. She never laid a single finger on any of them: that had to count for something. She never meant for them to get caught up in all this; it was just another case of unfortunate circumstances, she was sure. There was no reason to be nervous because Unknown had no reason to hurt her.

She would be fine, perfectly safe.

Besides, even if anything happened, her classmates were all in the building, plus the teachers would come running in the blink of an eye.

And with that bit of reassurance, Uraraka gathered enough courage to step into the hall. She took a deep breath and continued forward, only stopping once she reached the very last room.

Turning to face the simple green door, identical to all the others in the building, she shifted the plate in her hands, sucked in a breath, and knocked.

Silence...

Silence...

Silence...

Sil-

The door cracked open and a familiar raven-haired girl peeked out from the sliver.

"Um, h-hi!" Uraraka grinned nervously, shifting her weight as she tried not to seem as anxious as she was. She almost struggled to meet her gaze, too focused on remembering the simple words she had been rehearsing in her head for the past hour. "W-we heard you moved in today! We're really h-happy to have you here!"

Unknown blinked at the girl's near-shaking form, eyeing her questioningly. After a moment, her eyes trailed down to the plate of food she held between her hands.