~~~
Akira was woken by a consistent tapping on her balcony window. She tried to ignore it, tossing over to her side, using her pillow to try and block out the noise, but to no avail.
Just when she was about to explode with anger, Kira flings herself out of bed and tears open her curtains, expecting an annoying bird to be there or something, but instead she spots a figure lurking in the trees by the dorms.
"Hey!" She whisper-shouts. "Who the hell is that?" No response. "I swear to God, if that's you Monoma, I will personally kick your ass."
"Calm down." The figure reveals themselves. "It's only me."
Kira hesitates, still not believing the potential imposter. "D-dad? What are you doing? It's like... two in the morning."
"I had to see you!" He blurts. "How did your provisional licence exam go? Did you pass?"
Kira looks to the side, down at a random spot on her balcony and her father's once cheery demeanour diminishes.
"Aw, no. What happened?" He asks.
"Nothing. I was an idiot, that's all."
"Come down here," he suggests, waving his arms. "We can talk about it, if you want?"
"Why does everyone keep saying that!?" Kira barks, her frustration echoing in the night.
"Because you look like you're about to explode," he says plainly. "Even from down here, I can see that."
"I... I can't. We're back to normal classes tomorrow and I really need to rest up."
"You're back to normal classes?" Kira nods at his question. "Tomorrow?" She repeats her movement. "Jeez, they don't mess around in this school, huh?"
"No, they don't," she says. "Which is exactly why you need to go now."
"Just ten minutes," he pleads. "Akira, I need to know how you are."
Kira eyes the man below. Just that phrase alone is enough to make her doubt him.
"You know I still don't trust you, right?"
"You trust me enough," he counters.
She sighs heavily, her contradicting thoughts overlapping. "Fine," she grumbles out finally.
Kira leaps over the railing, using one hand to swing her legs over and drop down the several floors below. She activates her Quirk for a safer, stealthier landing and approaches her father, dusting her hands off.
"Nice to see you again," he says, his voice his regular volume.
Kira keeps quiet, staring at him with a mixture of hostility but also familiarity.
"Take a walk with me?"
Kira watches as he sticks out his arm for her to take and she hesitantly loops her hand in with his elbow and the both of them saunter away from the dormitories. Kira's bare feet pad on the cold concrete as they stroll alongside the woods. The night was quiet, not even a bird to keep them company.
"So, you wanna tell me why you failed?"
Kira sighs heavily, casting her eyes down to the ground. There were only a few people she would tell about her failure and her distant father was one of them. After all, who's he going to tell?
"I told you, I was dumb," she replies, still unsure.
"That's pretty vague, Akira," he informs her. "Come on, spit it out. You'll feel better."
They pause in the middle of the street and Kira stares up at her father, his hood casting his face in an eerie shadow.
"How are you feeling?" She changes the subject.
He sighs at the not-so-subtle topic change, but answers her question anyway. "Not well," he tells her honestly.
"You said you would try," Kira snaps, suddenly.
"I am, Akira, but my wounds. They're..." He trails off with a huff, looking down at himself in remorse. "My Quirk is flawed."
"Flawed?" Kira repeats.
"You know this already." He nods. "Of course, you've got the... upgraded version of my Quirk, but you know that it's not a complete healing process."
Kira nods sadly, noting the scar on her neck. "So, your body still won't heal?"
"No, it won't," he says. "I even extracted the shards from my body."
"You mean the bullets?" He nods at her assumption. "And?"
"And..." He sighs again. "I don't know. My body healed, but I-I don't feel one hundred percent again."
Kira looks away, before gazing back up at the hood again. "There has to be some kind of logical reasoning for this. Maybe it has nothing to do with your Quirk."
"Maybe," he mumbles. "We already figured out the difference in our Quirks when we first met. You tend to heal slower than I do."
"So?"
"So," he starts. "What if there's something wrong inside my body? Something that is healing constantly but never fully returning to its original state?"
Kira's puzzled by the theory. "You mean like internal bleeding or something?"
"Or something."
"Well, then we need to get you to a hospital!"
"I already told you that can't happen," he says dismissively. "No public outings. Nobody can know about me."
"Yeah..." Kira trails off. "About that."
She takes another step down the path, urging her father to keep up.
"You told people about me!?"
"I didn't tell anyone!" She retorts. "They found out."
Her father grumbles unintelligibly at the response, his head cast down to the concrete.
"My classmates aren't idiots!" Kira barks. "They're at UA for a reason."
"Who?" He asks and Kira replies with a frown. "Who knows?"
"Why? What are you gonna do?"
"Nothing, of course." He sighs. "I just need to be wary, vigilant."
Kira thinks back to Bakugou and Midoriya, the only two who know about her father. Bakugou said he won't tell anyone and for some reason, she believes him. As for Midoriya, he speculates that Kira is some kind of traitor. She already affirmed him of his assumptions, but Midoriya isn't the kind of person to let something go. He needs proof, facts about her place at UA and her purpose. So, she'll find a way to give that to him.
"You don't have to worry about them," Kira assures her father. "They won't tell anybody."
"You're sure about this?"
"I am." She nods. "Why do I have to keep you a secret anyway? What exactly do I have to be concerned about here?"
"You don't have to be concerned, Akira. I'm not the bad guy here."
"Right," she scoffs, facing away from the man.
"Tell me about the exam now," he says and she tenses.
"You're not going to let it go, are you?"
He shakes his head and so Kira fills him in on everything that happened with the boy and his father on the day of Kamino ward, the day All Might's reign ended. She told him how that event was what caused her to fail, how her consequences had actions so great that it caused her to panic and abandon a victim and her friends when they needed her most. She also told her father that she couldn't tell this to anyone, until now.
"You see why I've had to keep this a secret?" She says.
"Oh, yeah." He nods quickly. "This'll most likely get you expelled, for sure."
"Thanks for that," she replies sarcastically.
"You've kept this hidden the entire time?" He wonders and she nods. "Well, that's not healthy, Akira."
"What else am I supposed to do? It's like you said, I'm likely to get expelled for what I did."
"Is there nobody you trust enough to share this information with?"
Kira thinks about Kirishima immediately, but he wouldn't understand. He'd probably completely hate her if he knew, tell the others and then they'd all despise her.
Turns out she doesn't even trust her own partner enough.
She shakes her head. "No, no one can know."
Kira sighs heavily, deep in thought as she chews on the inside of her cheek. She carries on down the path and her father paces silently beside her.
"There was something else, wasn't there?" Kira wonders. "You didn't ask me to be out here just to know if I passed or not."
"This was one reason," he argues. "I do want to get to know you, Akira."
She ignores his caring side comment. "What was the other reason?"
He sighs at her insensitivity, but tells her nevertheless, clutching at her elbow to stop her in her tracks.
"I found them. The League."
Kira blinks at her father. She knows she didn't hear that correctly. Or she did and he means some kind of Sports League, or something.
"You wanna run that by me again?" She frowns at the man.
"Well, I didn't exactly find them per se." Her father sucks the air in through his teeth. "But, I did find their... broker of sorts."
"Broker?"
He nods eagerly at sharing the news. "Goes by the name of Giran. I don't exactly know what his Quirk is, but I know he has something to do with the League. The thing is, he keeps an extremely low profile - full confidentiality for anyone and everyone he comes across."
"Dad!" Kira blurts. "This... this is unbelievably dangerous! You can't be doing this sort of thing."
Her father looks hurt, confused by her reasoning. "I've been searching for the League for months. I thought you'd be thrilled to hear this news."
"Are you kidding me? I don't want you anywhere near those psychopaths! I was with them for two days and this happened!" She gestures to her neck. "Can you imagine what they would do if they found out you were some kind of spy?"
"They won't know."
"They will know." An eerie silence fills the space between them, her father upset and befuddled, while Kira is fuming, her hands balled into fists at her sides. "I just-" She cuts herself off, tearing her gaze away from her father. "I don't wanna lose you too, y'know."
"I know that, Akira," he answers quietly. "But someone has to do something."
"Well, why does that someone have to be you? Why can't you just leave it to the pros and the police?"
"The villains know what the police and the pro heroes look like. With me, they have no idea," he explains. "I'm nothing. A nobody. Trust me - they'll have no idea."
Kira wants to go along with his idea, but a part of her can't agree. If she loses him too, she'll officially have no one. And that thought scares her into submission.
"No." She shakes her head vigorously. "I won't let you do this anymore."
"Akira-"
Suddenly, a huge explosion erupts, painting the dark sky in a mass of oranges and yellows.
"What the hell was-"
"That came from the training grounds!" Kira says aloud.
Akira makes her way to the explosion, just as another one shakes the ground at her feet.
"Akira, wait!" Her father halts her with a hand on her shoulder, wheezing ever so slightly.
"What do you mean: wait? This could be a villain attack!"
"I don't think so." He shakes his head.
"What?" She frowns at the man. "How do you know?"
"Two of your classmates left the dormitories maybe about twenty minutes before I woke you."
"What?" She says again. "Who?"
"A blonde-haired kid and a green-haired kid," he tells her, nodding in the direction of the explosions. "They went that way."
"Bakugou and Midoriya?" Kira turns her head back up at the orange glow.
"It looked like they had something heavy weighing down on the both of them. Perhaps they're fighting it out," her father suggests.
"Midoriya isn't the type," she says quietly. Kira shakes her head free from her daydreaming. "You gotta get out of here. These explosions will have woken everyone up. Teachers, students..."
Her father nods quickly, taking two steps back before rushing back to Kira and wrapping his arms around her. It took her a few seconds to realise that he was hugging her, not attacking her. So, she returned the gesture, feeling how skinny he was underneath his heavy coat.
"Go, dad," she whispers.
Kira watches her father turn tail and disappear into the woodlands surrounding UA, as another explosion shakes the trees and scatters a flock of birds from their nests. She takes one step in the direction of the ruckus but pauses, gritting her teeth. She can't be spotted out here - she'll be questioned too.
"Dammit," she grumbles, before sprinting back to the dorms, hoping that no one's come outside yet.
She lets her legs carry her the way back. They didn't necessarily walk very far from the dorms, but not knowing about what's happening behind her with Bakugou and Midoriya was causing her blood to pump harder than it should've.
When Kira skids past the wall surrounding the dorm complex, Kira knew she was in for a serious amount of disciplinary action when she was met face to face with the one person she was trying to avoid the most.
"Mr Aizawa," Kira pants.
"Kiriya." He doesn't look happy in the slightest. "You have something to do with this?"
Kira turns around at the smokey air behind her, noticing the sky returning to a more normal dark colour.
"No, sir." She shakes her head. "I was awake with my studies when I heard the sound. I went to go check it out."
Aizawa raises a brow at her lie. "So, why are you back?"
"Sorry, sir?"
"Why aren't you still over there with Bakugou and Midoriya?"
So, it was her classmates. After all, she was going off the words of her father.
"Well," Kira laughs, almost nervously. "I knew that it was stupid to run headlong into danger by myself, especially if it did turn out to be a bunch of villains. Not to mention, I'm not allowed to use my Quirk in such situations! I didn't pass the exam."
"You almost make that sound like a good thing, Kiriya," he mumbles, still glaring at her.
"Oh, of course not, sir."
It's clear to Kira that Mr Aizawa is most reluctant at sharing the necessary information. This has been proven many times during their lessons in fact, when their homeroom teacher had twisted the facts slightly to give the students false information in order to make their studies more difficult and unpredictable.
"So." Kira clicks her tongue awkwardly. "Bakugou and Midoriya."
"What about them?" Aizawa says gruffly, a great manner of annoyance evident in his tone.
"You just left them out there to deal with their issues?"
"All Might has decided to take responsibility for them," he informs her.
"All Might?"
"Yeah," he glares down at her. "All Might."
The explosions far yonder had finally ceased, which could only mean a few things: either one of them had knocked the other into unconsciousness, or All Might showed up in time to stop the squabbling duo. Either way, it was quiet once again, with just the smoke from Bakugou's Quirk vanishing into the night sky.
"When they get back, you're sure to put the fear of God in them, aren't you, Mr Aizawa?" Kira half-jokes.
Aizawa unfolds his arms across his chest. "Don't think you're in the clear, Kiriya."
"What?" She spins back to her teacher. "Why me?"
"You're out of the dorms past curfew for one thing," he tells her.
Kira stares off into space for a moment. "We have a curfew?"
Aizawa sighs heavily and lowers his head to look at her as if to say: 'you're an idiot.'
After a few more minutes of Kira pondering on the potential punishment from their strict homeroom teacher, All Might returns with Bakugou and Midoriya and they look worse than she imagined. They could do with a trip to Recovery Girl. But, Kira has a feeling that the pair won't be granted such a luxury.
"You two..." Aizawa trails off, speed walking towards them with hostility in his eyes.
"It's best to go easy on them Aizawa," All Might interferes and so the teacher ceases his advancement.
Aizawa takes a moment to judge the boys for a bit longer before ushering them inside. They scurry off with their heads hung low.
All Might offers Kira a quick, semi-reassuring smile before she too follows after her classmates.
"Hold it," Aizawa orders and Kira stops with her foot on the third step.
They wait for All Might to enter the dorms, before Aizawa speaks up again, his tone low and dangerous.
"It's time for you to tell me the truth, Kiriya," he says.
"What do you mean?" Kira replies calmly, spinning on the step to face her teacher.
"First of all, you're a terrible liar," he tells her. "I really don't appreciate getting lied to, especially by my own students."
~~~