It's been a few days since he had gone into her room, and Midoriya still has yet to muster up the courage to speak with Reia. Despite being in the same house for basically all hours of the day, he hadn't spoken a word to her about what he saw.
He knows she's not a villain, otherwise neither him nor his classmates would've lived passed day one, as dark as the thought may seem. Of course, seeing a few figures of the League of Villlains was a little unnerving. He probably doesn't have to worry about it too much seeing as how the amounts of figures and plushies of his classmates and teachers outnumbered the amount of villains. He could just bring up the question later.
Midoriya sighs to himself softly, eyes shifting to Reia's back as she continues to cook for him and his classmates. Next to the woman was Hagakure and Ojiro helping her, Ojiro smiling with Hagakure laughing at something that Reia must have said. He watched her talk to his two classmates, and it seems he must have been staring a little too long when he heard someone speak.
"Uh, Midoriya?"
The boy blinked out of his stupor, turning to the person who spoke.
"Yeah Todoroki?"
"Is something wrong? You've been staring at Winters-sensei for a while."
Midoriya stiffened slightly. His green pools turned to his other two friends, and he saw they were staring at him in small confusion too. A sheepish smile made a way onto his face as he rubbed the back of his neck.
I guess I was too obvious, huh?
"It's...nothing. I guess I'm just...hungry?" He spoke uselessly.
His three friends blinked. They were silent for a little bit, but they seemed to believe him. A small giggle came from Uraraka. She placed her hand in his hair, ruffling the soft tufts.
"Don't worry Deku, it's almost done!"
Midoriya's face burst into red. Turned into a stuttering mess, it only took a few seconds after for Uraraka to realize what she had done. Her hand yanked back towards her body, and her face filled with blush as she flailed.
Once the food had arrived, everyone enjoyed the meal before heading off to start lectures. Although Midoriya was doing fine in keeping up with the lesson, his mind still remained elsewhere. He watched as Reia taught the students some earth science. She seemed to be a little more confident in her teaching abilities; less nervous.
While she continued to lecture the class on the planets, Midoriya mindlessly wrote down the notes onto his notebook. He still couldn't get it out of his head. The reveal in the manga about One for All. The villain minifigures in her room. The last manga in the collection. Was it the end of their story? What was going to happen? Should he even find out? How was he going to bring up One for All to Reia? How could he bring up the figures of the villains? Did she like the villains from their universe?
So many questions shot around in his head as his eyes remained on the table he was sitting in. Just as he was about to go on another tangent in his head, he felt someone nudge his shoulder, bringing him out of his thoughts. When he turned, he saw Todoroki raising an eyebrow at him, mouth slightly parted as he stared at him. That's when he realized everyone sitting at his table were staring at him.
Midoriya looked around at the rest of his classmates. They all stared at him, whilst Bakugo glared at him with his eye twitching. Immediately, Midoriya put his head down as his face began to burn a bright red. He must have been rambling again.
"Sorry," he mumbled in embarrassment.
A few of the surrounding students chuckled, and Reia gave the boy a small smile. After a few seconds, she had gone back to teaching the class, and Midoriya was careful not to talk for the remaining time.
Eventually, Reia's classes were finished. The students were given a break between her and Aizawa's classes, so once they were let loose for an hour to get some food and do whatever they wanted, a few of them had immediately gone over to Midoriya after they remembered watching his rambling tangent.
"Dude, are you okay? You seem pretty distracted lately," Kirishima commented.
Kaminari nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I don't think I've heard you talk like that since...huh, since forever!"
"Yeah, you were kinda acting weird this morning. Are you sure you're okay Deku?" Uraraka's eyebrows furrowed.
Midoriya looked at his friends with an anxious smile. It's not like he didn't appreciate their concern, but it wasn't something that he could flippantly tell them about, especially One for All. Only he could handle this problem. As much as he wanted to confide in his friends, he couldn't.
"Oh, uh..."
While Midoriya tried to come up with an excuse, out of the corner of his eye, he could see Bakugo staring him down with his eyebrows downturned. He couldn't lie. Whenever his childhood friend stared at him like that, it made him a little uncomfortable. He was usually used to the feral, aggravated look the boy would always receive. Though Bakugo may seem unusually calm and quiet to others, Midoriya knew it wasn't that. They've known each other for years, so even the slightest difference in an eyebrow raise or the narrowing of eyes told the green-haired boy all he needed to know.
When Bakugo got out of his seat, Midoriya could only wince at what was about to happen. The sandy-blonde male barged through the group's circle, hand shooting to Midoriya's wrist before he yanked him out of his seat. The boy yelped and his eyes widened. As Bakugo dragged him away from the group, Sero raised an eyebrow before a mischievous twinkle appeared in his pupils.
"And where are you two love birds going?"
Midoriya's head whipped behind him with a horrified gaze. Bakugo growled.
"Shut it, Tape Face! I'll murder you!"
"I'd like to see you try Explosion Boy," Sero teased, a smirk growing wide onto his face.
Bakugo's head spun around. He charged at Sero. Midoriya gasped. Immediately, he wrapped his arms around and underneath Bakugo's shoulders, yelling for him to stop as he dug his feet into the tile. Bakugo yelled profanities, some aimed at Midoriya to let him go while Sero cackled behind Kirishima.
It took a while, but once Bakugo calmed down, he went back to dragging the boy outside the "class", though not before throwing a pencil towards Sero's direction.
Midoriya yelped slightly as he stumbled forward. He caught himself again, and when his eyes shifted to the back of the blonde's head, he grimaced. He felt a sense of Deja Vu while they walked across the pool area. It reminded him of the night of the hero license exam. That night, he could sense something from his childhood friend. He knew something was bothering him, so when the boy had mysteriously told him to meet him at ground beta, Midoriya had gone with no protest.
That night, they fought to understand each other. That night, Bakugo found out about One for All. That night, Midoriya felt an unknowing weight lift off his shoulders. After the whole ordeal, Midoriya is happy to say that now he and his childhood friend have finally gotten onto the stage of actual friendship, or at least a healthy one. He was glad that their old days were behind them, though every now and then, he could still hear the echo of 'swan dive' echo at the back of his head.
Against all feelings, Midoriya knew he couldn't blame him. Bakugo was young. He didn't know what he was doing, well, at least completely. Plus, he could see that the boy was slowly starting to change in a good way, so there would be no point in bringing up the past. He's not going to talk about it. He won't.
Once they reached the other pool house on the other side, Bakugo tugged Midoriya behind the building. He let go, and Midoriya rubbed his wrist lightly. He rolled his eyes.
"Spit it out, Deku. What the hell's wrong with you?"
"What?" Midoriya asked.
The boy didn't answer. Midoriya looked down, lips thinning. Kachan knows about One for All. He knows the truth. So why would it be any different in telling him the truth now? It shouldn't affect anything, should it? Besides, he was the only person he could confide in. All Might wasn't with them, and Bakugo was the only other person that Midoriya was close to that knew about One for All. Maybe...it was okay.
With a sigh, Midoriya looked up at his childhood friend.
"I think Winters-sensei knows about One for All."
At that statement, Bakugo clicked his tongue, a small vein presenting itself on the side of his temple.
"Of course. Fucking Stalker," he growled lightly.
Midoriya sweatdropped. Clearing his throat, he then went into detail on what he saw in her room, well as much as he could anyway. He talked about the villain figurines, the posters on her wall, the manga volumes about their lives. He hadn't really looked at the rest of the manga volumes on her shelf, and it probably was the right thing to do. After all, it was an invasion of Reia's privacy. Well actually, it would be an invasion of their privacies, considering it was about their lives, more specifically Midoriya's, but he wasn't going to get into the technicalities.
Once Midoriya had explained the rest to his childhood friend, as well as the fact that he wanted to ask Reia to help him train for the rest of the other user's abilities, Bakugo ended up staring at him for a full minute, then scoffed. After another second of silence, he shook his head with an eye roll.
"Don't rely on her idiot. She can't help you."
Midoriya blinked in surprise. It took him a little, but the more he thought about it, the more he got confused. A small, almost inaudible 'what' came out of the boy, only causing the ash-blonde in front of him to growl.
"Are you stupid? That woman can't help you," he hissed, "if those extra's caught you training, what do you think would happen? Don't even try."
Midoriya's eyes widened at the tone. Thinning his lips, he looked at the ground again. It's not like he hasn't thought about it. If their friends caught him trying to train with multiple quirks, then it would be a little harder to excuse as an extension of his 'strength' quirk. It was hard enough to make an excuse for Black Whip. He didn't exactly want to reveal that he 'inherited' a quirk like how he explained to Kachan the first time.
Bakugo was right, but at the same time, he was also wrong. Why couldn't Reia help him? If she knew about One for All, then it would be easier, wouldn't it? He wouldn't have to fight himself on whether to tell her or not, and she probably knew about the previous holders as well. Overall, she could be of great help, so Midoriya was a little confused on why the boy would say that.
Bakugo clicked his tongue when the green-haired boy didn't respond. Turning away, he mumbled one last curse before walking away with his hands stuffed in his pockets. Midoriya watched as he left, and the more he thought back onto the blonde's words, the more baffled he got.
–
"Alright, I'm heading out! Please don't break anything while I'm gone," Reia called out as she walked towards the house entrance.
Bakugo's eyes shifted in the woman's direction, and he watched as Mina and some of his classmates followed after Reia. He heard them asking where she was going, and she told them that she was going to visit a friend. It would take a little while, so they could eat without her. It was meaningless chatter, and Bakugo cared nothing for it. Once Reia left, he decided to make his move.
He got up from his seat on the couch, causing his friends to look at him.
"Where are you going man? The movie just started," Kirishima said.
Before Reia left, the class decided to watch a movie together. Knowing his classmates would be distracted and Aizawa would be outside training, it was his best option in order to not get caught. Looking at Kirishima, he stuffed his hands in his pocket before turning away.
"I'm heading to bed."
"What? Bed? But why now? You don't want to watch with us?" Mina asked.
"No."
"What? But you didn't say anything before! Flaker," Kaminari complained.
"Guys, it's fine, just leave the pomeranian alone. Don't forget, he needs his nap time or else he'll be cranky," Sero smirked.
Bakugo's eyes twitched. He stayed still for a moment, wondering if he can kill Sero and get away with it even with all the witnesses in the room. As appealing as it sounds, he needed to get what he wanted done now or it would be too late. Deciding on which one was more important, he let out a loud 'whatever' and turned, hands still stuffed in his pockets curled into fists to stop himself from lashing out.
Sero was still laughing as Bakugo left, and him and the rest of the students turned back to the TV and unpaused the movie. Bakugo looked at them for a moment, waiting to see if any of them were looking in his direction. No eyes looked his way. He then turned to the stairs, making his way up while trying to be as quiet as possible.
When he got to the top, he glanced between the different doorways down the hall on his right. Although Bakugo's been in Reia's house for almost two weeks, he still hasn't gone upstairs. He never had a reason to. He knows Reia's room is somewhere on the second floor, but he didn't know which room, so he had to go look for it.
Going all the way down the hall, he made it to a white double door with two golden knobs in the middle. When he opened it, the room looked pretty normal. From the little toy models on one of the drawers to some drawings of flowers on the walls, there was nothing that screamed 'otaku!' since the whole room pretty much didn't have any anime stuff anywhere.
Definitely wasn't what he was looking for. Shutting the door behind him, he then went down the rest of the hallway. The first room was a game room. With the three futons on the floor folded neatly, he guessed it was where Deku, Todoroki, and Iida were staying. He then moved to the last room near the stairs. When he opened it, he almost rolled his eyes at himself. He should've just gone to this room first.
Anime posters lined the walls of the room. Ranging from some that Bakugo didn't know about to Attack on Titan, they covered the majority of the room's paint job. The bed in the corner of the room had navy blue sheets with a black comforter, and covering the surface was multiple plushies that Bakugo could see was some of his classmates and teachers. His face twisted in disgust.
As he looked around the room, he mentally listed off the things that the freckled, green-haired boy mentioned to him. Walking up to the shelf near her bed, he picked up one of the figures displayed on the top of it. Bakugo's teeth gritted at the sight of Shigaraki in between his fingers. His free hand clenched into a fist, and the grip around the figurine began to tighten. He still hasn't forgotten when he got kidnapped. The memory was always fresh in his mind. Sometimes when he was left too long to the quiet, his mind would wander back to that musky bar filled with alcohol and the crimson, red eyes that glared back at him.
A small growl left his mouth. Then, he threw the figure onto the ground away from him.
What is this bitch hiding? Bakugo thought to himself.
He remembered Deku mentioning something about their manga. It showed the part about their lives, right? Well, they already knew that from when Reia had first explained it to them. But there was something in Deku's tone. Bakugo could tell there was something else when he mentioned the mangas.
Looking through the shelf, Bakugo's eyes flickered to the title at the bottom of their poster before searching for the same title in the books. It didn't take long for him to find it.
His eyes scanned the volumes; 1 all the way up to 36. Reia had a lot of 'My Hero Academia' books, including some called Vigilantes, Smash, Heroes Mission, etc. Bakugo couldn't lie. Seeing all of it was...kind of weird to him. And it was creepy in his opinion. Honestly, why was there so much of their merch around?!
Shaking his head, his eyes landed on the last volume. He remembered Reia had mentioned the mangas briefly when she first began to explain everything, and it was some offhand comment. When she talked about it, it was only that it showed their lives, same thing for the anime. But she never told them the name. That, and she never mentioned that she had both medias in her room. She was making an effort to avoid telling them about what she really knows, and it was one of the reasons why Bakugo didn't trust her.
Grabbing the last volume in their series, the boy opened the manga to a random page.
First, he could see both his senpais in the first panel of the page. Amajiki seemed injured, and the more Bakugo scanned the page, he began to realize that something was going on.
His eyes narrowed. Is that Shigaraki?
The scene then turned to Hado-senpai. She was trying to land a hit on Shigaraki, but then the scene turned back to some type of 'arena' before going to Hado's past. Bakugo was surprised to see that she used to be distant, but the information alone wasn't what made him want to know more.
If the manga had suddenly took a turn, especially with Shigaraki, didn't it mean that something bad was going to happen? What was that arena Shigaraki was talking about? Why were the Big Three fighting him? Why was Best Jeanist, Bakugo's mentor, fighting him? Things weren't adding up. Something was going to happen, and Bakugo was determined to figure it out.
Before he could flip to the last chapter, the door creaked open, causing Bakugo's head to whip around with wide eyes.
"K-Kachan?! What are you doing?!"
Once he heard the soft, quiet voice with his signature name coming out first, the boy rolled his eyes before turning back to the manga's shelf. Midoriya's eyes widened when he saw the book in between his friend's hands, and he rushed over with light footsteps before putting his hand over the top part of the manga to close the pages.
Bakugo's teeth clenched in annoyance.
"Get your hand off, Deku," he gritted out.
"No! You...you shouldn't be going through Winters-sensei's stuff! It's an invasion of her privacy!"
"Invasion of her privacy? Why? She's got something to hide?"
Bakugo tried yanking the book out of Midoriya's grasp, but the boy tightened his grip on the top, making the ash-blonde's grip tighten in return.
"We shouldn't be in here!" Midroiya whispered.
"Then leave!" Bakugo hissed back.
Midoriya shook his head. He tried to pull the book away, but it wouldn't budge.
"Put it back!"
"The hell? Fuck no!"
"Kachan!"
Crimson red clashed with forest green. They both glared at each other as they struggled to pull the manga away from the other. With no sign of conceding from the other boy, Midoriya spoke.
"Why are you trying to look through Winters-sensei's stuff?"
Bakugo scoffed. "Are you stupid? Our manga shows our past, present, and future. If she knows what will happen in the future, then why is she keeping it a secret? Something's going to happen, and she's not telling us!"
Midoriya's eyes darted to the manga, then back to Bakugo's eyes. His lips thinned, but he didn't say anything.
"I looked through the manga. Hado-senpai, Togata-senpai, Amajiki-senpai, and Best Jeanist were fighting against Shigaraki."
Midoriya blinked in shock. Shigaraki? They were fighting against Shigaraki?
Midoriya's grasp on the manga loosened slightly. His eyes looked back and forth between his friend and the manga. His teeth gritted.
"W-we can't. Even if it's the future, it's more of a reason not to."
"Even if it has something to do with All for one? One for All? All Might?"
At the sound of his mentor's name, Midoriya looked at Bakugo with an unreadable expression. The red-eyed boy's glare remained on the one in front of him, but looking at Deku's expression, he knew he had struck a nerve.
Midoriya's hand began to loosen on the manga.
The door burst open. Immediately, both Midoriya and Bakugo whipped around, gaze catching onto a wide-eyed Reia staring back at them.
--
Hey guys! I'm back! First, I wanted to apologize and say sorry for the late upload. I thought I could pump out multiple chapters, but I ended up procrastinating lol. Oh well. Also I had assignments and tests, so there's that.
Anyway, as an apology for the late chapter, here's a picture of our beloved caretakers!
I also created a new Instagram account called anim_ico. I'll be posting drawings of scenes from the stories I make and I will also be posting other drawings of other ideas that I come up with. Make sure to drop by and drop a follow!
Merry Christmas everyone! Thank you so much for reading!