Tamaki was so surprised he had jumped when he got an impromptu text, his phone buzzed and neither Mirio or Neijire were on their phones. Well, Mirio was on his phone but he clearly was putting dramatic hero themed filters on pictures he had been taking of the three of them all morning, and thus had not just texted him.
He slowly pulled his phone out worried about just how he was going to reply to a stranger who had accidentally sent him a message meant for someone else. It happened to him more than most would expect.
However, his face lit up a bit when Ishi's name was in the identification bar of the text, he smiled a bit clicking on the notification and quickly putting in his password.
Ishi:
I'm at the festival! Where are you?
I'm just in the ticket gate on the U.A. side.
I'll wait for you.
The texts didn't quite seem like her, they weren't filled with that cute little flair that she seemed to magically always be able to ad into her short messages. That was another thing, there was too much, too many words and punctuation marks. Much like in person, Ishi tended to text a little vaguely with as little words as possible.
He was a little on edge but didn't want to leave her waiting if it actually was her so he snatched his hero cape off the back of his chair, hoping that the mere "spook factor" of having an actual hero show up would scare anyone who may be using Ishi's phone away so that he wouldn't have to confront them.
When he got close his hair was put on edge as he smelled, ever so faintly, blood. He started sprinting, using the tentacles from the takoyaki he and Mirio had picked up early to push civilians out of his way, faintly apologising as they called out in confusion when the were suddenly moved. The only thing he could think was about her, if she was hurt, bleeding, dying. Tamaki shook his head trying to rid the horrid thought from his mind and he forced his legs to run faster, the hood of his cape being blown back slightly by the breeze. "Please be okay" he thought desperately, he repeated it over and over like a mantra until he turned the final corner and saw someone in a ball on the ground and a man leaned over the person. She seemed to be shrinking away from the man and he could see her sweatshirt pushed up causing her back to bleed. Whoever it was, Ishi or not, would be okay, he was a hero, and he was her to help.
"Please back up" His voice didn't feel quite like his own, it felt like someone foreign, someone confident, like a heroes "I need to get to the civilian so I can bring her to the infirmary so if you could please get out of the way so I can do my job I would appreciate it"
The figure lifted its head as if it recognised him, and finally he could see the bandages wrapped across the middle of her face, he could see the small familiar snakes peeking out of the edges of the hoodie, he could see her, Ishi. His girl.
Tamaki wasted no time walking forward and pushing aside the stunned man who was still putting all the pieces together, he seemed angry to have his advances interrupted. The man's glare was thick and menacing, almost making Tamaki shiver.
"Who are you supposed to be? I don't know of any hero who looks like you" the man had this odd expression on his face, his anger seemed to turn into smugness like he had just caught Tamaki in a lie and couldn't wait to expose the deception.
"I'm Sun Eater, I work at Fat Gum's Hero Agency" Tamaki replied honestly, cocking his head to the side as if asking if the man had any other questions or if he could continue helping the girl between them.
After the man whipped out his phone and typed 'Sun Eater' into the search engine to validate the boys identity he finally fell back allowing Tamaki to step forward whispering in Ishi's ear, "I'm here for you" he grabbed her outstretched arms and wrapped them around his neck as he scooped his arms underneath her legs and wrapped them around himself so her hoodie could fall loosely back down over the slight cuts without putting any pressure of his own onto them, he didn't want to hurt her.
"Let's go see Recovery Girl, She's usually here to treat the people who get injured during the fights" he winced remembering his first year at U.A's sports festival, a time when he would never even dream of being considered the school's Big Three, back then he was still just a kid who didn't quite know how to use his quirk properly. He was beat pretty bad and spent a good deal of time with Recovery Girl that day.
"No!" she said quickly causing him to stop his steady confident strides.
"What? Why?" He asked, he was sure it must hurt and he was absolutely certain she was getting blood on the inside of her hoodie.
"I snuck out" she mumbled burying her head into the corner of his neck in shame. "I was supposed to stay in my room and watch the festival from there...but I was really lonely" A blush rose up her neck she wanted to say that she had missed him and that she wanted to spend the whole day with just him but she couldn't bring herself to do it, she wasn't the type of person who impulsively shared anything.
"Oh" Tamaki had never snuck out of anything before, he wasn't sure what he was supposed to do now. "What should we do then?" he asked.
"Could we go out to the stands, I want to experience the festival" she replied a little bit of childish whimsy in her voice. Sure she had seen the festival from her room year after year but there was something about being there that made everything different.
"Sure" he replied walking through the curved hallways avoiding big crowds so her wounds didn't get bumped by anyone.
The light at the top of the tunnel was blinding, the cheering was deafening, so much louder than it had seemed on TV. Ishi felt excitement and adrenaline pumping through her veins, she wasn't afraid, she felt powerful as though she had just beat some small anxious part of her, like she had fought back, like she won.
"I've always wanted to come" she told Tamaki. "Nemuri told me about your fight, and she audio recorded it, Nobody seemed to be on your side even in the crowd, I could hear you though. You sounded so determined you were going to win. I thought that maybe something was going in your home life and you were trying to prove something. I really wanted to give you a hug. Nemuri kept talking about you and how after that fight you started doing better in classes and that that was about when you started becoming more famous, she thought it was pretty funny that someone with your personality was as strong as you are" Ishi chuckled in remembrance of Nemuri's many tantrums her cries of 'WHY IS HE LIKE THIS!' at 1am. She breathed before continuing, "I wanted to come so I could hug someone who looks like they really need that hug that I wanted to give the you from back then, but realistically I can't see anyone now so I guess I can't do what I had wanted can I?"
"I'll be your eyes" Tamaki said without a second thought, "I'll keep an eye out for someone who needs one of your hugs, and then we'll go see them," he explained.
She smiled, "Yeah!"
"WE WILL NOW BEGIN THE THIRD TRIAL! IT IS... ONE ON ONE BATTLES" Nemuri announced from the stage, she was intentionally being dramatic even though everyone knew that the third one was always a one on one battle to the top. "OUR FIRST TWO CONTESTANTS ARE MIDORIYA IZUKU AND HITOSHI SHINSOU"
The two boys walked on stage, Tamaki told Ishi that Hitoshi looked cocky while Izuku looked angry. "Like Hitoshi kicked his kitten?" Ishi asked, Tamaki was taken aback before looking at Izuku again and deciding that 'Yes, like someone kicked his kitten".
"Oh then Hitoshi must have done something pretty bad, people don't usually get that angry for no reason, it probably isn't because of the competition alone" Tamaki sat in awe of Ishi's observational skills before she added on some more, "I used to be around angry people a lot, they generally think the same" after hearing that he was reminded of the criss crossing scars on her back that he had caught a glimpse of before. They were rough and gagged, almost from a whip, and they didn't seem to have been treated properly, definitely without stitches, they had probably been infected at one point. It hurt him to think of her in that much pain, he wanted to ask about it but he also didn't want to push her.
Roaring cheers and a sound wave broke him out of his dark thoughts, he saw Izuku charging across the platform while Hitoshi looked at him in fear shouting out insult after insult his body language seemed to be screaming that he needed a reaction out of Izuku. But he was merely tossed aside. His back arched roughly as it was cracked against the harsh pavement, he couldn't help but let out a small cry of pain. Izuku stood angry and righteous above him, as though he had gotten revenge against an unforgivable villain, and in that moment he felt like one. The villain he had always told himself that he would never be. The crowd cheered, the underdog had won, the Hero Course student had won. Of course he would, a 1A student couldn't lose to the underhanded cheats of a general education nobody. He wanted to cry, he could hear the whispers as he lay staring up at the blue sky above him, he caught the eye of a bird overhead and for just a moment he wondered what it would be like to just...let go, to stop fighting so hard when everyone would call him a villain, was it worth it?
Slowly, he stood up brushing away the med bots who tried to bring him on to their stretcher and bring him to see Recovery Girl. But he didn't need that right now, he refused to let anyone see him on that stretcher, to see him that weak and defenseless. He had walked onto this stage and he would walk off. He had at least that much strength in him.
"Ishi, I think I found someone who needs a hug" she perked up in moments already bouncing a bit, she had been given so much from so many people who loved her, she felt this overwhelming need to share at least a little bit of that hope with someone else.
"Let's go, we have to hurry or they'll get away" she urged.
"Yep" he said standing and starting to go back into the tunnels going through a side door into the staff and competitors hallways heading directly to the exit that Hitoshi had just gone through.
He leaned against the wall, unfeeling, ignoring the stares of the next competitor who walked past him to get onto the stage. Hitoshi could not bring himself to think of anything but not succumbing to the dark pervasive thoughts that edged at the corners of his mind. It hurt; and there was nothing he could do about it, nobody to brighten his day, to make him feel like his life was worth something.
"Hey!" Someone yelled, he barely registered it. "Hey, I'm talking, I'm talking to you you know!" the voice seemed to be female and it felt like she was trying to say something to him.
Warm arms wrapped around his torso, for a moment he allowed himself to relax. He let his mind soften and decided that he could wallow in pain and regret later, but right now he was simply going to allow himself to be comforted.
"It's okay to have an off day, It's okay to be different. Your ability to be a hero depends on your character as a person and the actions you take rather than your quirk or your past" With those few words his knees buckled and tears started streaming down his face in thick trails, the tears fell off his face and onto his saviors face.
He opened his eyes to take a look at this mysterious goddess, this girl who had saved him from the darkness within himself. She didn't miss the slight wash of fear in his eyes when he saw one of her snakes moving toward his face, he leaned away almost imperceptibly. But his eyes softened when the snakes swiped away his tears, their kindness only bringing more tears.
It felt like they sat in that dark corridor for hours just holding onto one another while he cried.
"Thank you!" he sobbed barely holding himself up, "Thank you for saving me, for being... my hero"
A.N. I know the ending there wasn't perfect but I wanted to introduce mah boi Shinsou (he means everything to me honest to god) But I also really need to do other things tonight (cough final-exams-are-next-week cough) I hope you enjoyed this double update, I may not post for a little while because again I've got final exams, christmas, and then my birthday all coming up through the end of this month but I hope I have sated a little bit of your content cravings, again I encourage you to give me ideas for omake chapters, nothing big just little things I can write in my spare time but stuff you wanna see. Anyway, Goodnight/Goodmorning, have a great one!