When we were given the student handbook about what to expect when coming into U.A. High, we were promised that there was absolutely no way that a villain could make their way inside, even the most trained one. The walls outside the building should've been enough as it would've given a silent alarm, one that would've alerted the teachers to get students to safety. If it happened during lunch time when there wasn't any teacher supervision, teachers would've found a way to get to every student to make sure they got into a designated "safe spot."
These safe spots guaranteed student safety. Of course, while students were there, the teachers would fight off the villains until police came to arrest them.
This wasn't the silent alarm. Somehow, a villain, or more for all I knew, had snuck their way inside of U.A. When this happened, all students had to be careful because we weren't ready to take on villains. At least, we weren't ready yet, our teachers would claim. We weren't allowed to play "hero" until we got our hero license. Even then, we had to be careful as "we were the future heroes of this world".
Of course, Kaito and I had to have been stuck in the library, which was still pretty far from the nearest safe room. They really should've rethought how they built this in case something like this would've happened.
"Tami, it's going to be okay. We'll work this out together, no worries. If we encounter any villains, I'll get them long ranged, you can turn into someone else when they're not looking and run away," Kaito planned.
He didn't say it directly, but I could tell what he was thinking. Everyone thought my Quirk was neat, but when it came down to something like this, something where we needed to fight off villains, I was absolutely worthless. If there were villains here, I couldn't really do anything. I had to rely on someone else in order to get to the other side of the school to go into the safe room.
There had to have been a better way for this to work.
"Hey, it's going to be okay," Kaito promised as he stood in front of me, placing a hand on my shoulder and handed the book back to me. "That's worst case scenario, got it? Best case scenario, we won't encounter anyone."
I slowly nodded my head as I took a step back, so he wasn't touching me. My hands wrapped around the book I found, holding it close to my chest. It didn't have anything to do with our project, but for the mere fact that I was terrified.
We'd only been in school for a month and someone had already made it past the silent alarm and into the building. How was this school safe? How could any great hero come from here? There couldn't be, not if we died before anyone had the chance of getting their hero license.
Oh gosh, we were the first students, and we were all going to die!
"Tami, calm down. Standing here, doing nothing, isn't going to help. We've got to go to the safe—"
Kaito didn't finish his sentence as we heard a door open. Our heads snapped over towards the railing on the second floor. There was only one door to this place. That was on the first floor. Without it, there was no way in or out of here.
No one should've been coming here if we were all meant to go to the safe place. That only meant one thing. I held my breath as I followed Kaito to the railing on the second floor. My hands grabbed the railing as I leaned over to see who was there while Kaito did the same.
For a while, I couldn't see anyone down there, which made me wonder if we were just hearing things. My eyes locked onto a computer that was shoved to a far wall below, where a pile of books sat with a U.A. blazer laying on top of it. It was then I remembered that Michi was here too, looking something up on the computer. Maybe that was what the noise was from. She was pretty smart in knowing that she'd have to get into the safe room as soon as she could.
Instead of talking myself into that thought, I kept looking around the first floor, seeing many of the empty tables and chairs pushed out into the middle for everyone to see. Around them were rows of bookshelves that stood in two perfect rows on each side. Nothing seemed to be out of place until I saw two heads coming out of rows of bookshelves to my left.
My eyes widened. They weren't just any villains. These were villains I knew. I had to cover my mouth with my hands to prevent a gasp from escaping, but I don't think it was enough as I saw the two heads freeze.
They were back. The two villains from the mall were back. I had almost forgotten about them after everything that had happened, but there was no way I could forget that head of pink hair and the man wearing a mask and a hat to conceal his entire face. Even their voices were enough to jog my memory.
"Why can't we have some fun? This place is filled with wittle hero-wanna-be's who needa be tawght a wittle wesson," the pink haired woman pouted as she walked into the the main area for me to see.
If I could see her, there was probably a good chance she could see me. I quickly grabbed Kaito's arm and pulled him down, so we were hidden by the wooden railing. Once down, I kept my hands over my mouth as my legs pulled closer to my chest.
The villains from the mall were here in U.A. How did they get here of all places?
"Just find the book and get out," the other man said. "We'll worry about those students later."
In the corner of my eye, I saw Kaito staring at me with his orange eyes. He didn't say a word, knowing that they could hear us, but he opened his mouth and mouthed the words, "Do you know them?"
Not trusting what would happen if I pulled my hands away from my mouth, I nodded my head. All we needed to do was to get past them, but I could barely get past them the first time at the mall. The only reason I was able to slip away was because there were multiple people here. There was no one I could hide among here. This place was empty. There was no way I could turn into anything that would make them look away.
Kaito frowned before he mouthed another question, "Are they the ones from the mall?"
Once again, I nodded my head, before I squeezed my eyes shut and looked away from him. I wasn't cut out to be a hero. Even though everyone thought I was hero material, I wasn't. I got scared too easily. Knowing that I barely escaped them last time made me wonder how I was even going to pull that off a second time.
A real hero wouldn't have been scared. A real hero would've been fine.
"Hey, I get why you're nervous," I heard Kaito whisper as I felt his hand rest on my shoulder. Hearing him make this claim caused my heart to race as I wondered how he figured it out. "You're nervous because we're not ready to face villains quite yet, right?"
I opened my eyes as I looked at him. It was by far the farthest thing that I was afraid of because I didn't plan on facing any type of villains in the future. My plan was to drop out of this school before we had the chance to go anywhere where we'd have to fight some villains. I was terrified of what could very well happen: that they'd find us and end us.
Here, Kaito thought I was worried about not being prepared. His logic didn't make any sense to me, but he seemed to think that was what the real problem was before I could even contradict him.
"Don't worry, I'll keep them away with my Quirk if we pass them, and if anyone asks—"
"What are you two doing here?"
Kaito and I snapped our head in front of us to find Michi standing there with her arms crossed. Her hair was pulled back into its normal two curly pigtails, but the jacket to her uniform was missing. It was unlike her to go without it, but I didn't question it. Not when she was standing up high enough for the villains on the first floor to see her.
If they saw her, then we were doomed!
I quickly leaned over and grabbed her arm, pulling her down to her knees. Once she was down, I let go and grabbed the tie that wrapped around my neck. My heart started to pound even faster as I looked her in the eye, worried about what she would say.
Luckily for me, I didn't have to say a word as Kaito spoke up. "Didn't you hear the alarm? There are villains here, and they're right here in this library."
Michi nodded her head. "I know, but that's why I came to check to see if there were any students left here. If any of us has a chance of getting out of here, then we need to work together."
"Then why ask what we were doing?" Kaito asked.
"Because I wasn't sure if you two came in here because you were chasing after them, or if you were seriously trapped here. I needed to make sure you two were being smart about this," Michi explained, before she looked at me. "Tami, it's going to be okay. Our teachers are probably looking for us this very minute. We'll get through this, I promise."
I looked up at her, seeing Michi looking right into my eyes. It amazed me how calm she was acting during a time like this. She wasn't trying to be heroic and throw herself in the middle of the chaos, nor was she freaking out like I was. Instead, the girl remained calm and smiled as she looked at me as if she was waiting for me to calm down before we did anything.
It wasn't that she was waiting impatiently either. Michi placed both of her hands over her chest before she took some deep breaths, silently telling me I should do the same. Seeing her do this, I realized her first priority wasn't just getting out of here; it was making sure both Kaito and I felt safe. Somehow, she could see that I was freaking out, even if I didn't show it as much as I could've.
I was being honest about that too. The last time I was faced with danger, like actual danger, I ran and showed everyone how fearful I was until Kaito and Sakura had calmed me down. It was a shock that no one else at the mall tried to do the same, but that was how society worked. As long as I wasn't bothering them, or was dealing with some life-threatening villain, it wasn't their priority.
Michi was different. She cared. Looking over at Kaito, I noticed he was doing a similar thing as he gave a reassuring smile and a thumbs up, whispering words of encouragement. My hands slowly loosened around my tie until they dropped the tops of my legs. While my fingers started to play with the ends of my skirt, I just closed my eyes, and mimicked what Michi was doing.
"Better," Michi said. "Now, we've got to think of a way to get out of here without them noticing."
"Isn't your Quirk Teleport?" Kaito asked. "You could just teleport Tami and me to the safe room. We wouldn't deal with any villains, and we could tell the teachers where they're at."
Kaito had a point. I opened my eyes, looking over at Michi. She was no longer looking at Kaito or me as her head dropped to the ground. Kaito must've said something to make her feel uncomfortable, and she didn't need to say a word for me to realize what it was too.
"I thought about that," Michi whispered, "but there's a problem with that plan. I've never tried teleporting other people with me. During the first exam, Sakura and I found the kid the same time our opponents did, so I used my Quirk to distract them while Sakura carried the kid and used her vines to defend them off. In addition to that, it takes a lot of stamina. The shorter the distance, the better."
Hearing her say that, I realized something. Her jacket was off. That was something I had noticed earlier, but now I could see that her white, button down shirt had sweat marks under her arms and around her neckline. She didn't smell as if she had gone out for a long run, but the signs were there that she had used her Quirk a bit too much that it was starting to wear on her.
She could've easily gotten out of the library and slowly teleported her way to the safe room, but she didn't. Instead, Michi was looking around the library to make sure everyone was out of here safely. It was no wonder she was ranked number two in our class. One of these days, Michi was going to become a great hero. Not just any hero. I could see her becoming a hero that people could actually look up to.
"Okay, so then what? There are two villains who we know nothing about," Kaito said.
"A-a-actually we do," I stuttered, causing both Michi and Kaito to snap their heads towards me. I shifted positions so my legs crossed each other. My hands started to tug the ends of my skirt the more I thought about it. "The w-w-woman's Quirk, she needs to kiss someone for it to work. I don't know if—if they die, pass out, or what, but she needs to k-kiss someone on the lips for it to work."
"That's disgusting," Michi commented.
Kaito looked back and tried to look above the railing, almost to catch a glimpse of this villain I was talking about, but he was quickly pulled down by Michi who grabbed his shirt and gave him a death look. Of course, for this villain to use her Quirk on Kaito, it wouldn't have mattered. He was a boy. It would've been gross, and still very illegal, but at least it wasn't me.
Thinking about it, I couldn't help but to remember the way she looked at me as she was about ready to lean in and plant one on me. She could've kissed me then. I knew that was all she wanted to do.
Now, we had bigger problems. I wasn't the only one she was after. Just moments ago, I overheard her talking to the other guy about wanting to use her Quirk on any students here at U.A. Thinking about that, reminded me she wasn't alone.
"There's also a-a-a guy," I told them. "He shoots off parts of his body—er, at least his arms and turns it into goo."
"Now that's disgusting," Kaito commented.
That was what he found disgusting? I thought to myself. That other villain had to kiss a person for her Quirk to work. It wouldn't matter if she had consent. She was a villain! She would do whatever she pleased as it didn't phase her.
All it took was one kiss for a person to go out, and yet all Kaito was worried about was the guy? It didn't make sense.
"Okay, so we're dealing with someone who can do long range attacks and someone who's much more dangerous the closer you are to her," Michi concluded. "Got it. Okay, well, Kaito, you can shoot light at long distances, right?"
Kaito nodded his head.
"Good. To get out of here, we might need you to cause a bit of a distraction and use that," Michi explained. "Tami, it sounds like you know them well, so worst case scenario, you can turn into one of them to confuse the other one, or you can turn into someone who's naturally fast, like Daigo. As long as we stick together, we'll get through this, understand."
I looked down at the clothes I was wearing, realizing a slight flaw to her plan. My clothes didn't change into whatever the other person was wearing. If I turned into the man, I'd probably rip through everything I was wearing. There was no way I wanted to run around like that. On the other hand, I could turn into the pink haired woman, but she was bigger in areas I wasn't. It'd feel weird turning into her.
Michi laid her hand on my shoulder, giving it a comforting squeeze. "Don't overthink it. In the end, it's up to you how you use your Quirk. There's no right or wrong way as long as you use it to your advantage, okay?"
Her words were comforting. I relaxed my shoulders as I looked up at her and nodded my head in agreement.
"It's three against two. We just need to outsmart them and get out of—" Michi started to say before laughter filled the entire library.
The three of us froze, not sure what was going on. Michi let go of my shoulder as we turned around, looking toward the railing behind us. I knew that laughter. It was too high pitched and sounded a bit more joyful than it should've been. Remembering how she was when I first encountered her, I stayed hidden, not moving a muscle.
In attempts to make me feel better, Kaito patted my back. He kept whispering that he was going to have my back this time, and I wasn't going to go through this alone. It was nice and comforting, but I wished he wouldn't have continued to pat me on the back like a toddler.
Meanwhile, Michi slowly peaked her head above the railings to see what all the commotion was about. I watched as I noticed her body tense up. It didn't take long for her to duck down and look at Kaito and me with sheer horror.
Before Michi could say what was going on, the woman from before loudly announced.
"Aren't you a wittle sweetie pie! Makes me wonder how many other hero-wanna-bes are hidden here," the woman squealed with excitement.
Kaito and I turned our heads to look at Michi, who shook her head. While she had dark skin, I could see it slowly starting to lose its color.
"Change of plans," Michi explained. "We're not the only students trapped here."
Author's Note:
Uh-oh. Seems like Michi, Kaito, and Tami are in much bigger trouble than they had anticipated. Wonder which student has accidentally spent their time in the library and got caught by the villains.
In the meantime, lets move onto this week's question. Seeing that we have two villains that are scary in their own way, which villain from BNHA would you be scared to face in battle?
Character Spotlight: Nightshade
Quirk: Unknown
Likes: Seeing people squirm
Just make her eyes pink and this pictures is exactly how I imagine the villain...maybe a bit older, but again, these are just pictures to help create that image in your head.
Song: The First Layer from Made In Abyss