"MARGO! MARGO! ARE YOU OKAY!?" Eijirou screamed, shaking me with his unhardened hand.
"Yeah, I'm fine! Are you!? What the hell was that?!" I yelled, as Eijirou yanked me off the ground, throwing me over his shoulder.
He began sprinting off, carrying me.
I yelled in surprise, slightly irritated by his overly chivalrous attitude right now.
"Hey! I can walk! Put me down!" I yelled, lightly hitting his back.
"No way! You're wearing heels!" He retorted, dragging us behind a concrete statue a few feet away.
I pouted my lips in annoyance.
The man has a point.
Eijirou gently set me down, once we had taken cover behind the statue, assessing my body for any injuries.
I gently pushed his hands away, slightly on edge from what just happened.
"Eijirou, I'm okay. Seriously. Now, what happened? Did someone try to shoot us?" I quickly asked, removing my heels and earrings now in case I had to fight.
Eijirou quickly peeked behind the statue, activating his hardening on his arm for protection.
"Yeah. When we were kissing, I heard some shuffling in that bush over there. I opened my eyes, and saw a weird, silvery glint peeking out from the bush. I assumed it was a gun, so I pushed you to the ground and shielded you." He quickly explained, intently looking for any signs of the gunman.
"Thanks." I said gratefully, quickly peeking out from the other side of the statue now.
I was grateful to Eijirou for possibly saving my life. But, this was no moment to be lovey dovey about it. We could be in serious danger right now.
"Which bush was it?" I mumbled.
"That one to your left." Eijirou whispered, pointing to the bush.
I nodded, quickly out stretching my hand towards that area.
I activated my quirk, applying pain to myself and the person presumed to be hiding in the bush.
Not even a second later, I heard the familiar blood curdling scream of someone being manipulated by my quirk.
The bush began rustling furiously now, as a man jumped out of it.
He was wearing a hood, so I couldn't see his face.
But, now was my chance.
I continued applying pain, quickly leaping from my spot behind the statue.
"Margo, wait!" Eijirou yelled, jumping out to follow me.
I sprinted full speed at the man, watching him shakily try to point his gun at me a second time.
I quickly rolled to the side, hearing another gunshot go off.
"DAMN IT!" The man with the gun yelled, quickly ripping a crumpled piece of paper out of his pocket, and throwing it towards me.
He stood completely still now, trembling from the pain I was causing him. He was probably about to activate his quirk.
"I am so dead. Now, he's going to kill me." The man groaned out dreadfully, quickly snapping his fingers and disappearing into thin air.
I dove forward to where the man was just standing, grabbing nothing.
He was gone.
"Damn." I mumbled irritatedly, before quickly turning to Eijirou.
He was about to speak, before his eyes trailed to the crumpled piece of paper that was on the floor.
I quickly scrambled to my feet, running over to him.
"That's the paper that man with the gun dropped. What does it say?!" I asked, coming up next to Eijirou, as he opened the paper.
We both silently scanned over its contents:
I very much enjoyed our phone conversation the other day, Margo. I look forward to seeing you soon. This is just a taste of what's to come for you.
~the man with the "wrong" number
I swallowed thickly, as I blankly scanned the contents of the letter, over and over again.
"Huh? Man with the wrong number? Who's that supposed to be?" Eijirou asked, inspecting the letter more.
My mind replayed back to the phone conversation a few days ago:
"and who do you think this is?" I uttered cautiously, feeling my heartbeat pick up slightly.
"Someone who was supposed to be very useful to me. Someone who could have changed the future, changed the world." The man replied.
I couldn't help but feel slightly intimidated by this guy's voice.
He sounded young. But, he also sounded dangerous.
"I-I think you have the wrong number." I breathed out, trying to control my nerves.
The silent response from him screamed in my ears, making my heart feel like it was going to pound out of my chest from anticipation.
"Heh. You really have no idea what I'm talking about. Do you?" The man responded after some time.
So...this means, the guy who called my burner phone...
This attack was his doing....
I'm sure this has to do with the league of villains somehow.
I turned to Eijirou, noticing he was inspecting something in his hand.
"What's that?" I asked tiredly.
"It's the second bullet that was shot at you. I was running behind you when the guy fired his gun. I simply hardened my body to reflect it, rather than move out of the way to dodge. It landed next to me on the ground. It's....it's weird looking, right?" Eijirou mumbled curiously, turning the bullet around in his palm.
I furrowed my brows to inspect the bullet, noticing what Eijirou was saying.
"Yeah. It's really weird. It doesn't look like a normal bullet at all." I breathed out, twirling the item between my fingers.
I looked down at my phone, chuckling softly as I looked at the time.
12:15am.
"We missed curfew." I mumbled carelessly, worrying about more important things right now.
Eijirou simply shrugged, grabbing my hand to get us moving again.
"I'd say we have a pretty good reason for doing so. Come on, we should see Mr. Aizawa about this immediately." He called out, dragging me to Aizawa's office.
.......
"And you didn't see a face, or anything else?" Aizawa asked again, stressfully running his hands through his hair.
"No. The guy was wearing a hood." I sighed out, watching Aizawa inspect the bullet again.
"He also said something that caught my attention. Before he disappeared, he said he was 'so dead,' like this was supposed to be a job that he ended up failing. That probably means that the shooter isn't the mastermind behind this plan." Eijirou explained, leaning against the wall.
Aizawa nodded, lost in thought, before he turned to me.
"Margo, do you still have the burner phone from Shigaraki? This mysterious man called you on it, right?" Aizawa asked.
I nodded, tossing him the burner phone.
"Yeah. I thought it was really weird. Only Shigaraki is supposed to have that number." I shrugged, watching Aizawa open the back of the phone.
Eijirou and I gasped, as Aizawa quickly extracted a small device from the back of the phone, holding it up for us to see.
"What the hell is that?!" Eijirou asked in shock.
"This is a tracking device." Aizawa simply said, narrowing his eyes to inspect the little bug.
"A tracking device? From Shigaraki?!" I asked in disbelief.
"Could be. But, it wouldn't make much sense for him to do so, since he knows exactly where you are all the time. He knows UA students never leave this school." Aizawa explained, now grabbing the bullet that was shot at me earlier.
Eijirou and I were quiet, as Aizawa studied something.
"Plus, look at this....the type of paint on the bullet is the same type of paint on the tracking device. I don't think that's a coincidence. Whoever this guy is, he makes his own stuff." Aizawa said.
Eijirou groaned slightly, throwing his head back against the wall.
"Wow, it sort of makes sense now, when you think about it. How else would the shooter know exactly where Margo was at that specific time? If they knew her location, it's no surprise they were able to get her number somehow, too." Eijirou mumbled, his face contorting into worry now.
I nodded blankly, still having one question.
"But, how were they able to put that tracker in my burner phone? I mean, it's pretty much on me all the time." I said, not understanding.
Aizawa was quiet, debating whether or not he should say something.
He sighed softly, before deciding to speak.
"Look, Margo. I don't want to scare you or anything, and I don't want you to become too paranoid, but whoever placed this tracking device in the phone.....probably snuck into your room. Either when you were sleeping, or when you were gone. That's the only explanation." Aizawa said cautiously, trying not to scare me too much.
I saw Eijirou's jaw tense at Aizawa's words. He balled his fists in frustration, glaring at the ground now.
While I was slightly uneasy, as well....I've been through much worse than this, in my lifetime.
I was undercover, after all. This was part of the job.
"Alright. I mean, no big deal right now. I guess all we can do is wait, right?" I shrugged, leaning back against the chair.
Eijirou whipped his head around at me now, looking slightly irritated.
"Wait? Wait for what? Wait for this psycho to come into your room, while you're sleeping, and chop you into tiny little pieces?!" He scoffed slightly, shooting me a look of disbelief.
It was late, and we were both clearly exhausted from the night....
And it was showing slightly.
"Obviously if this guy wanted to chop me into 'tiny, little pieces,' he would have done it by now. What do you expect me to do? Have an army watch me, while I sleep at night?" I retorted at him in annoyance.
"Hah, well that army idea sounds a hell of a lot better than your first idea of doing jack shit." Eijirou spat, slightly more aggressive.
I stood up now, walking over to him.
"You think I'm doing jack shit about this? Who's office are we in right now, trying to work out a safe plan to fix this!?" I called out in irritation, pointing to Aizawa.
Aizawa continued researching stuff on his computer about the bullet, completely ignoring the argument between Eijirou and I.
Eijirou scoffed, crossing his arms at me.
"Oh sorry, I guess 'jack shit' wasn't the correct term. What I meant to say, is that you don't seem to have much regard for your own life!" Eijirou yelled, standing up straight from the wall now.
I looked at him in complete disbelief, starting to get angry.
"Huh!? What the hell are you talking about—
"—well for starters, you charged directly at the armed gunman about thirty minutes ago, Margo!!—
"—I activated my quirk on him!! I was trying to stop him! I was completely safe!" I yelled out, trying to defend myself.
"Don't pull that bullshit with me! I know how your quirk works. So, no!! You weren't safe, because your quirk activates on you, too. You barely dodged the second gunshot because you were in pain from your own quirk!! I saw it with my own eyes!!!" Eijirou yelled, getting in my face now, as he was visibly angry.
I groaned in annoyance, throwing my hands up in frustration.
I was about to speak, when Eijirou cut me off.
"And now you don't seem to give a shit, whether this man comes into your room and kills you! He planted the tracking device in your phone, which means he knows exactly where you are. Yet, you don't even seem to care if you live or die, Margo!" Eijirou called out, anger and worry equally present in his voice.
I sighed, rubbing my temples in annoyance, as I looked at him.
"Eijirou—" I started, saying before he continued.
"Margo, I want to help you! I want to save you. But your calmness about this whole situation is worrying me—"
"That's just how I was raised, okay!? For ten years, I thought I was going to die every day at Nyūshin! I built up a tolerance to the fear of death!" I started off, noticing Eijirou's eyes widen at my words.
I realized I accidentally spoke the name of Nyūshin labs out loud. I'm sure Eijirou heard it.
I watched the anger dissipate from his eyes, causing mine too as well.
It was quiet for a moment, before I spoke again.
"Look. I'm not trying to make this a sob story, okay? That's the last thing I want. I'm just letting you know why I am the way that I am. That's not to say I don't fear death, or that I'm not afraid of this situation. This is just....how I cope with it. I know that's not good, alright?" I mumbled quickly, wishing Aizawa didn't hear all of that.
It was quiet for a moment, before Eijirou sighed softly, nodding his head in understanding.
The air was a little better, but there was obviously still some tension between us right now.
He was about to speak again, before Aizawa spoke first.
"Look, I know this is a lot to handle for both of you. But, it's almost 2 in the morning. Kirishima, you have the license exam tomorrow afternoon. You need rest. Margo, you need rest as well. Go to bed. We'll reconvene about this later, alright?" Aizawa said, nodding us off dismissively.
Eijirou and I nodded simultaneously, heading out the door.
"Alright." We both mumbled weakly, not really in the mood for anymore talking.