Shoot Your Shot - MHA College AU

Scene 22: Shadow of a Memory

{ Scene 22: Shadow of a Memory }

The forest was thick and tangled, blanketed ghosts and sweatsuits rushing down the street. Brushing past shoulders and sloppy feet, you found her orange hair bobbing between passing heads, like a tiger lily in a field of sharp grasses. You reached for her hand, plucking her from the crowd, and pulling the two of you together on the edge of the sidewalk.

"Th-thank you," she panted.

"Are you okay?" you asked, steadying her shoulders, trying to coddle a stray kitten.

"I-I recognized you. You saved us back there, at the gate," she spoke between breaths. "The way you use your quirk, you must be in the hero program."

You gave her a reassuring smile. "I am. Can I help you? It sounded like you were looking for someone."

She sniffled, her eyes watery with concern. "M-My friend, Ava. We're roommates. She was in the shower when I left the room to drop something off downstairs, and then the building started shaking, and... I ran outside with everyone else. I've been searching everywhere for her, but I can't find her, and I think she might still be stuck inside."

"Are you sure she's not out here already? The crowd is pretty dense. It's hard to look for just one person."

"Sh-She's hard to miss. Bright pink hair with jagged bangs 'cause she tried to cut them herself. Short, small, kind of loud," she explained. "And she's probably in a towel too. Wouldn't have time to throw on proper clothes. Knowing her, she'd stay in shower for as long as possible, even if the world was ending."

This girl seemed oddly familiar. Like a strange mix of your pink, curly-haired friend with the stubbornness of that spikey-haired blonde.

"Oh! I forgot to mention," she continued. "Ava glows in the dark."

"What?"

"That's her quirk. She glows in the dark, so she'd be easy-ish to spot out here. That's why... that's why I'm really worried. I really think she's trapped in there still..."

The road ahead was denser than ever. More students must've followed the others, pulling a chain link cobweb through the wandering bodies, taking them along with the wave. You could quell the worry that more people would be safe, but it could only be replaced with a new concern.

"You're almost certain she's not here?" you asked, already searching for a path back up the broken, busy street.

"I-I'm very sure... There's a chance she's here, but we're on the 7th floor, second from the top."

You sucked a breath through your teeth. "The electricity's probably cut. No elevators. No light, but she glows in the dark so... Probably only in a towel..." Slowly piecing together the situation, you knew what you had to do.

"D-Do you know what's happening? Are there villains here?" she asked, her cheeks and nose puffy under her orange hair.

Besides the shadowed figure on the roof of the residence, you hadn't seen any other culprits. They had to be out here somewhere.

"I-I don't know," you uttered. "There're villains here, but, we don't know much about them, or why they're here..."

You turned back to the training facility, just down the road. There was hope in your heart that you could see him, bobbing in the waters like a fluorescent buoy. But Kirishima was long gone, washed away in the scrambling mass.