IN THIS CHAPTER, ALL SPOKEN ENGLISH WORDS ARE BOLDED!
"That's a terrible idea Yamada." Aizawa growled, rubbing his temple. "What good is a simple child's game going to do for the situation? You're speaking nonsense."
Yamada's face melted into a look of giddy excitement as he pulled a small black box from his bag. "I borrowed a truth cube from detective Naomasa Tsukauchi! I'll be able to figure out exactly what happened!"
Aizawa's eyes glowed a fearsome crimson. "You can't manipulate the children. I won't let you. Besides, this has nothing to do with English class."
Yamada held up his hands in defense. "Calm down! I know what I'm doing!"
"Yamada..." Aizawa's voice teetered on the edge of both threatening and warning, but Hizashi had already left the lounge. "Trust me, everything will be A-OK!"
~~~
"Excuse me Sensei, but how does a game called "Truth or Dare" have anything to do with learning English?" Iida called from his seat, his hand swishing mechanically through the air.
Present Mic chuckled at that, setting the mysterious box down on the teacher's desk.
"Don't worry young listener, I'll explain everything."
Kirishima sighed, slumping back into his hand and beginning a new doodle on his English vocabulary sheet. The last thing he wanted to do was play a game with the students that hated him for no reason. He raised his eyes to look at his blonde boyfriend and was surprised to see him looking back at him.
Present Mic's booming voice drew his attention from the familiar pair of simmering rubies and he huffed once more, turning to face their loud, blonde Sensei.
"Alright students! For this game, we will start with one person who gets to ask another person, TRUTH OR DARE-AH! If you prefer Truth you must answer honestly, or my interrogation box will detect your lie!" Yamada, plopped the black cube onto the desk. "If you choose Dare then you must do a simple task! You may not ask the person who asked you first! AND you must use ONE ENGLISH WORD in each truth or dare! UNDERSTOOD?"
The whole class was chittering with excitement, but none louder than Mineta.
"I can make a girl do anything I want?! Anything?! I can also ask anything? I'll finally be able to know Yaoyorozu's cup size!!" Mineta's drooling face was jolted forwards from the force of Tsuyu's tongue smacking the back of his head.
"That reminds me! No inappropriate questions!"
"Sensei, how will the box tell us if someone's lying?" Uraraka's voice came from the back of the room.
"Good question!" The loud man chirped, flicking a switch on the bottom of the box before setting it down on his desk. The cube lit up in a rush of white light and the class let out an astonished gasp. "When someone tells the truth, the box lights up green, and when someone tells a lie, the box lights up red! For example! My birthday is July 7th!" The box lit up a bright green and the class was abuzz with excitement. "So bring the desks into a circle! YEAHH!"
The sounds of scraping chairs filled the small room and Kirishima found himself sitting between Mina and Kaminari. He gazed at the grumpy blond sitting directly in front of him. He was busily drumming his fingers against his crossed arms as he glared at the floor. Clearly he was just as thrilled as Kirishima at the situation. The group settled in at once, watching as Present Mic set the cube on a single desk in the center of all of them. "This is going to be just like the game from my magazine!" Mina hissed out at him before turning and giggling with Uraraka.
"So who will start?" Todoroki's calm voice finally stated, his eyes shifting around for a bit in an uncharacteristically nervous way. Well, either nervousness or excitement, Kirishima couldn't tell.
"I want to start! I have so many questions! And dares!" Mineta's voice came from his seat between Shoji and Tokoyami, both boys looking irritated at the smaller one's perverted hand movements. Dark shadow was giving him the stink eye from just above the small, bird headed boy's shoulder.
"No, I want to start!" Mina's voice came suddenly, she wiggled in her seat, waving her hands above her head. "Aoyama! Truth or dare!" The sparkling blonde boy looked up at his name, "Oiu? Oh, I select truth!" Mina seemed to be barely containing her fits of giggles. "Aoyama, If you could only wear one color for the rest of your life what would it be?" Aoyama turned pale at this, his eyes flickering about as he thought about the question a bit too seriously. "Without shimmering colors life would be so bleak! I suppose I'd be forced to wear only SPARKLES!" Aoyama said, throwing his hands up into the air in a flourish.
"Eh? Sparkles isn't a color!" Mina shouted, shaking her fist.
"My turn now." Aoyama said with a coy wink and smile. "Todoroki, Truth or dare?"
The duel haired boy's attention swiveled to look at the blonde sitting across from him. "Dare," he said in an even tone. Aoyama thought for a moment before speaking again. "I dare you to make an icicle and lick it!"
"That's such a lame dare!" Mina howled, still angry, apparently that her truth had not been answered to her liking. Todoroki did his dare in a matter of seconds, and immediately turned his attention to the green haired boy sitting next to him. "Midoria, truth or dare?" Midoria had been staring openly at the icicle licking and flailed his arms in front of his face in embarrassment. "Ah... Um... Truth?"
Todoroki's response was immediate. "Are you All Might's secret lovechild?"
The class hushed at this, and Midoria's blushing intensified. "Wha-? NO! Not at all!" The box pinged a bright green color and the icy teen's shoulders drooped.
"I have a question for Midoria too!" Uraraka's voice came all at once.
"E-Eh? Is that how this works?" Midoria stuttered, his features lighting up in a blush once more.
"Deku, who do you like better? Todoroki or me?" She said this in a rush, her face pinched together in concentration and embarrassment and her tiny hands balled into fists.
"Eh?! I like both of you the same!" The box pinged a bright green and a grimace of confusion warped the brown eyed girl's face. "B-but at the hero's day event you tried kissing me, and then Todoroki!"
"EH?! I DON'T REMEMBER THAT!"
Deku shrunk into his hands. "I- I just really admire you both. You're both so strong in different ways, and I'm really happy to know you both!"
"An excellent sentiment, Midoria!" Iida crowed, swishing his hand, "Please continue the game!"
"But wait!" Uraraka started.
"Tsuyu, truth or dare?!" Midoria was quick to change the subject. "Hmmm... Truth." The frog-like girl said, tapping her large finger against the bottom of her chin.
"Ok! So I was wondering about this earlier, and I'm sorry if it's an intrusive question, bu, ah, do you eat bugs? Because I know that frogs generally-"
"Nope, ribbit. Tokoyami, truth or dare?"
"I'll do truth too." The bird headed boy said in a tired voice. "Ribbit, this is a question similar to Midoria's, but I'm curious as well. Do you molt like a bird would do?" The bird boy stiffened at this, but sighed reluctantly, responding with a monotone, "Sometimes." The box lit up green again.
"GAAAAH this is so boring!! Let me ask a question! Ask the girls something interesting, damn it!!" Mineta screeched from his chair. "Alright Mineta." Tokoyami growled from next to him. "Truth or dare?" Mineta regarded him with suspicion before answering. "Dare."
"I dare you to never speak to a girl again."
"WHAAAAAAAAT?! I could never do that!! NEVER! I'm not like some people here! HOW CRUEL!"
Kirishima watched as Bakugo stiffened, both of their eyes shooting daggers into the smaller boy, daring him to elaborate on his whining. Mineta, however didn't see the four red pin points of rage burning into his skull, and continued.
"I'm just a guy! I can't help that I get urges! I can't do this dare, give it to Bakugo or something!"
Bakugo's voice exploded into a "HAH?!" and he was held back by one of Shoji's arms as he reached forwards to strangle the other boy. "CALM DOWN THERE LISTENERS!" Mic's voice was deafening and Kirishima reached to cover his ears "Remember the rule about staying appropriate? I will assign extra homework if this gets out of hand again." The class was all angrily glaring at Mineta and the grape-headed boy seemed to shrink under the pressure.
"Fine... Kirishima, Truth or dare?"
Kirishima flinched. I really don't want to get a dare from this loser. "Uhh... Truth?"
"Have you lost your virginity?" It seemed that since Mineta could no longer ask perverted questions to their female classmates, he had resorted to targeting them to his male classmates.
FUCK.
Kirishima was silent for a moment too long and Mineta flailed his arms. "If I have to stop talking to girls for an entire game then you have to answer my question, damn it!"
"That's gross Mineta." Mina growled, "He doesn't have to answer that! Right, Sensei?" The class turned to look for Present Mic, but saw that he was having a hushed argument with Mr. Aizawa in the doorway of the classroom. "Class Prez?" She begged, turning to Iida. "Normally I would never condone this, but since we're technically missing an entire class period of study, I for one am excited for the extra homework."
"He doesn't have to answer you, you perverted idiot!" Bakugo snarled, but Kirishima had already responded with a quiet, "Yes." The box lit up green and the class was suddenly saucer eyed and silent. Kirishima shrugged, his eyes cast downwards and his cheeks dusted in pink. "I have a question for all of you, actually."
"Hmm... but that isn't how the game works..." Mina's voice came from beside him. "You have to choose one person." Kirishima didn't say anything, his hands held in tight fists in his lap. "Why... Why are you all avoiding me and Bakugo?"
The class was silent for several moments before Aoyama reached out and gently touched Kirishima's thigh. "Mon ami... We weren't trying to upset you." The glittery blond heaved a heavy sigh before straightening his posture and speaking slower. "After that quite dramatic bus ride, we all more or less grouped together to talk about how to help you feel better." Kirishima's eyes darted up to meet the blue ones that were looking at him in such a sad way. "We had silly ideas at first.. like baking a cake, but we all agreed that it was a sensitive situation that required us to give you the space you needed to mend your beautiful friendship."
Momo's gentle voice chimed in from across the circle, "It worked at first, but then things got worse, I think it was around the time when that video came out." Aoyama turned with a harsh stare towards the small purple headed boy.
The class nodded in agreement and Kirishima felt a flood of relief hit him so hard he was blinded for a moment. "Ribbit, after the video came out, we had another meeting and decided it would be best to give you even more space, since it worked well the first time," Tsuyu's voice came from across the room.
"But then we saw you and Bakugo in the kitchen," Ojiro murmured calmly, his tail swishing back and forth a few times contemplatively "You both seemed to be so... upset. But I don't think it was at one another. We're very sorry if this whole time you've been upset with us instead"
The class lowered their heads, and Kirishima felt his face melting into a grin. "You guys weren't upset with us?!"
"Wow, you guys had meetings without us?!" Kaminari whined, "We could have told you that they were going to be fine!"
"Sorry Kaminari," Momo said gently, "You and Mina had run off when we had the meeting." She turned to Kirishima then, "Kirishima, we really just hated seeing both you and Bakugo so hurt. So that was the plan we came up with." She lowered her head again. "I'm so sorry it made you think we hated you."
"HAH?! I WASN'T HURT!" the box flared a bright red and Bakugo exploded again into a violent "HAH?!"
Kirishima couldn't help the giggle of relief that popped from his chest, like hot sunshine bubbling from his mouth. "Hey! Shitty hair! Don't laugh at me!"
Aoyama interrupted, seemingly musing to himself, "At first I so wished I would be paired with that French hero, St. Valentine, but his methods were uncouth and simply disgraceful."
The class erupted into giggles at this, and it seemed as though they had shifted back to their normal state of happiness once more, but another niggling question sat at the tip of Kirishima's mind. "Uhm... One more question, for everyone, and then we can get back to the game, I promise."
Kirishima swallowed, making eye contact with Bakugo once more before forcing the words from his throat. "Do you guys know who posted the video of us? Bakugo and I were talking about it, and we figured that it had to have been a student who posted it... We just don't know wh-"
"That was my fault." A sad voice came from the floating uniform sitting next to Midoria. Kirishima's eyes widened impossiby large when the box flickered to a green light and the class sat with a newfound tension in the air. "I promise I didn't mean for it to happen." Her voice was trembling a bit as she spoke. "I was hanging out with Kendo and her friends, and I was asking her what to do to help in this situation, because Kendo always seems to know what to do." The floating gloves kneaded themselves in a worried state. "I was upset because the whole class was upset! I sent her the video Mineta took, but then that stinky Monoma saw it too, I think he was the one who posted it. I'm so sorry, I just made the whole situation worse!" The box remained green the entire time she was speaking, and the class was silent until Bakugo's voice once again erupted into the still air. "I'LL KILL THAT SECOND RATE BASTARD!"
"Calm down, Bakugo!" Iida snapped, swinging his hand at Bakugo's face.
"This is stupid! Kirishima and I didn't need your help, you all just messed everything up!"
The class was silent, their eyes drifting slowly downwards and shoulders drooping. Kirishima felt his heart pittering in a panic, "No... What Bakugo means is-"
"I know exactly what I fucking mean, Eijiro. They fucking put you in danger cause they're too stupid to fucking communicate."
Hagakure's sniffling could be heard from across the room. And Kirishima rose from his seat. "Hey! Don't say that stuff, man! You're upsetting everyone! They all meant well!"
"I don't give a fuck what they meant! You almost DIED, EIJIRO." The volume of Bakugo's voice had raised significantly, and his eyes were wide now, fury pooling in the depths of his glowing red orbs.
"That wasn't THEIR fault!" Kirishima took a step closer, he didn't like the tone in his boyfriend's voice. Their friends had never meant to harm him.
"Eijiro... Isn't that your first name, Kirishima?" Both Kirishima and Bakugo paused in their bickering. Kirishima's body frozen with his finger pushed into Bakugo's chest. Bakugo's eyes whipped down menacingly onto the green haired boy. "And so what if it is, nerd?" His voice was quietly, but filled with so much dark threat that it forced an involuntary shudder down the spines of all of them.
"If you don't mind me asking, have you and Kirishima... mended your friendship?" The freckle faced boy asked softly, his eyes adverted. Bakugo scoffed loudly, his eyes darting from the silent faces of his classmates, all watching them. "That's none of your fucking business!"
Shoji spoke so quietly, that if the room hadn't been completely silent, nobody would have heard him. "I believe that they are more than friends." Kirishima's face should have burst into flames with how hot it was burning at this point. "Shoji! You don't know what your talking about!" His eyes pleaded with the multiple armed boy to his left, and he watched as the other boy's eyes softened. However, whatever saving grace he had earned was immediately stomped flat by Bakugo's bombardment of raging insults and curses slung his way.
"You know..." He said with a cold look at Bakugo, "The walls here are very thin. It was very easy for me to hear you two... enjoying yourselves."
The box lit up green and Kirishima sunk his face into his hands, the class erupting into a tittering mess of confusion, repulsion, and excitement. "JUST WHAT ARE YOU IMPLYING?!" Bakugo's voice boomed over the sounds of his erupting hands. But the class had now shifted into a bout of awkward laughter. While Kirishima was a bit pressed that it had been at his expense, he was happy that his classmates were happy and that their tension was now fading.
"I KNEW IT!" Mineta's voice interrupted the chaos, "So who went in who?"
"MINETA!!!" Kirishima screeched, his eyes bugging from his head. "DON"T ASK STUFF LIKE THAT!!"
"Inappropriate! Time for more homework!" Iida sing-songed from his seat.
"Well I just wanted to know who was the strongest, surely the strongest man would have been on top!" Mineta slurred in a manipulative way, his eyes hooded with perverted glee.
"INAPPROIATE!" Iida's voice was booming now
"That's disgusting!"
"As if we'd ever tell you!" Bakugo roared through bared teeth.
"So you're saying you're the bottom?"
"WHA- I'M NOT-" The light changed abruptly from a green to a red and Bakugo's face flushed just as brightly, his features twisted in a furious agony. "I. WILL. END. YOU!"
The class exploded into a chaos of screams and scattered laughter. Kirishima was holding back Bakugo, while Midoria was frantically scribbling down notes, and Mineta was trying to escape from both Sero and Kaminari's death grip. Iida remained the only one sitting, still sing-songing about their extra homework.
"Well it seems that everything is back to normal." Aizawa muttered lowly, gesturing towards the chaotic classroom behind Yamada's back. "Now go clean up the mess you've made."
Hey there readers! Here's another update! Woo! This book will be ending soon, and I'll be moving my attention to my other Kiribaku works.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it!
Just as an FYI, I am aware that I am spelling Deku's name wrong. I spelled it wrong in the first cluster of chapters and decided to stick with being consistent. Maybe at some point I'll go through and fix them all, but for now this is my special Almond King way of spelling it! 😂
I got the idea for the cube from an episode of "The Good Place" - So that aspect of this chapter was influenced by that lovely show.
See you next chapter! ~TAK!