"You all have the next two days of school off for a break," Aizawa said. We were back in class since the sports festival had ended. "I'm sure the pros who watched the festival will want to recruit some of you. We'll look over the draft forms and update you when you return. Get some rest. You still have a lot of training ahead of you."
"Yes, sir!"
Not long after that, we all packed up to get ready to head home.
"Hey, Hiromi, where were you earlier?" Uraraka asked, walking up to me.
"What do you mean?" I said, grabbing my bag from beside my desk.
"You know when Nora was performing. It was so amazing!" Uraraka smiled as she remembered the concert. But then her smile faded. "You didn't miss that, did you?"
I frowned, I hated the idea of lying to her, but I kind of had to. I couldn't just tell her that I am Nora, if everyone around the school found out, I worry that all the students who are fans would want to hang around me just for that. Also, if the school found out, so would the rest of the world. And that was the last thing I wanted. "I must've. I didn't see it. I was... in the infirmary... still recovering from my fight with Bakugo."
"Oh, that sucks. I think you would've really liked it. I thought it was great!" Ururaka exclaimed. Hearing her talk about how great she thought the concert was made me inwardly smile. "Do you like Nora's music?"
I smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I like it a lot."
Uraraka smiled. Then she looked at me and looked like she realized something. "You know, you look a lot like Nora. And your quirk is pretty much the same as hers."
"Oh... r-really?" I studdered, nervously. "What a coincidence!"
Uraraka looked at me suspiciously before she shook her head. "Yeah, that crazy, isn't it."
"Yeah." I sighed. She must not have believed that she might have been going to school with a famous singer. "I'm gonna start heading home."
"I'll walk with you to the train station!" Uraraka said, grabbing her bag.
"Ok."
* * *
I waved bye to Uraraka as got off the train at my stop and started walking home.
"I didn't see you in the infirmary when I woke up." Someone growled from behind me, causing me to jump.
I turned around to see Bakugo walking behind me. "I didn't know you lived in this area."
"I don't. Shiro wanted me to hang out with him today at your place." Bakugo replied, his usual scowl on her face. He didn't look excited to be going to hang out with my brother.
I groaned. "Great."
"You told Round Face that you were in the infirmary, but I didn't see you there when I woke up," Bakugo stated, changing back to the original subject, and started to walk again. "From what I know, in between the time I was in the infirmary and Nora was performing, there wouldn't have been enough time for you to head back to the stands, or go anywhere. So you should've been in the infirmary if you didn't see the performance, but you weren't."
"I... I was there... you just... didn't notice..." I said hesitantly, walking alongside him.
"You're obviously lying." Bakugo scoffed. "So what were you actually doing?"
I stayed silent. 'He's on to me, whether he thinks I'm Nora, or something else worse, he's on to me... What do I do? I can't tell him... Can I? I mean I doubt he would tell anyone. Maybe. I'll just see what he thinks before I decide whether or not I want to tell the truth.'
"Not gonna answer?" Bakugo challenged, glaring at me.
I stayed silent for another minute before opening my mouth. "I-... Um, what... what do you think I was doing?"
"You could be an undercover villain," Bakugo suggested. He sounded a little skeptical about it himself.
'This was what I was afraid of.' I stopped walking and looked at him with a panicked expression. "No! That's not it! Not even close! I swear. That's not what it is."
"Then what is it?"
"I-I... I can't... It's not... I just..." I struggled to find the right words, which made Bakugo more suspicious of me. "Listen, I'm not really supposed to tell you anything. And, I-I know that's not helping my situation, but I... Ryu will definitely get mad at me if I told you-"
"So he's the villain mastermind?!" Bakugo asked, cutting me off. Honestly, I was shocked he was being so calm about this instead of trying to force answers out of me. But I was pretty happy about that. Bakugo can be really scary and him threatening me to get answers was the last thing I wanted.
"No! He just, um, well, I don't know. I just know that he'd get mad at me if he found out I told you." I explained though it didn't seem to help. My gaze fell to the ground before I mumbled, "He'd freak out if he found out Todoroki knew, even though he's kept the secret ever since he found out."
"Why the hell would Icy-hot know and not me?!" Bakugo yelled.
"W-Well, I didn't mean to tell him, he just sorta, found out..." I muttered.
"So then your obviously not a villain, or you would be arrested by now," Bakugo stated.
"Yeah! So that's not the-" I started, but was cut off by Bakugo.
"So you were either wandering around for some reason and decided to lie to Round Face, or you're Nora," Bakugo concluded.
I panicked. He was going to find out. "I wouldn't lie to Uraraka... Not unless there was a good reason..."
"And that reason is that you're the performer she watched at the sports festival. You just can't tell her because you want to keep your secret." Bakugo said. Causing me to freak out more, which made Bakugo smirk. "So I was right."
"N-No! I-I-"
"Don't start lying to me!" Bakugo yelled. Then he sighed. "I guess now you're gonna tell me that I can't tell anyone, huh?"
I didn't respond to him for a minute. 'The worst that could happen is he can tell everyone else. But why would he do that?' I took a deep breath. Todoroki knew and he hasn't told anyone, so what are the chances that Bakugo will tell people? "Fine. Yes, I'm Nora. And yes, you can't tell anyone."
"I knew it!" Bakugo exclaimed, sounding overly proud of himself.
"Listen, like I said before, Ryu's really strict when it comes to this kind of stuff and I don't really want people to know. The League of Villains already somehow found out that I was going to the hero course and the last thing I need is for the press to find out."
"Yeah, yeah, I get it. Just don't tell anyone." Bakugo said, not seeming to really care. We started walking again and after a few seconds of silence, Bakugo asked, "How did Icy-Hot find out?"
I sighed. "During the USJ attack. We ended up in the same place and one of the villains we fought brought it up. I tried to figure out how they found out where I lived, but they didn't know."
"The League of Villains know where you live?" Bakugo asked, narrowing his eyes at my house, which was in sight now.
"Yeah..." I stared at the ground. "I have no idea how they figured it out. But one day they attacked the studio. Luckily Shiro was relatively unharmed and he was the only one home. I think they were trying to send a message by attacking when I wasn't there, but afterward, I mostly continued things like normal, with a bit more security. That and Ryu decided to recommend me to the hero course. I don't know how he did it, but here I am now." I sighed.
We had made it to my house and when I walked inside, Shiro greeted us, "Hey, guys."
"Hey," I replied simply. "I'm going to my room. Have fun."
"Ok."
-Author Note-
I was not ready for my break from this story to end. I only wrote like, two chapters last month even though I told myself I was going to write more. I still don't really know what I'm doing for the internships, so I'm going to take my time to get there so I have a bit more time to figure that out. But either way, not having to worry about posting for this story has been pretty nice. Though, just a heads up, chapters may be out a little slow since I just started swimming for my two swim teams again, and, since they overlap now, I have about a two-hour window to get things done, unless I don't go to one practice. And that's not a ton of time, but I'm going to stop complaining now. I am pretty excited to start posting for this story again and I hope you're all excited to get to read more chapters for this now.
Anyways, Bakugo figured out Noriko's secret. Thinking about it now, Noriko's probably not that great of keeping a secret. I think the only reason not everyone has found out by now is because of me not wanting everyone to know yet. Honestly, I feel like more people would've realized it by now, but whatever.
Well, I'll see you next week.
-Starlight