It was Wednesday March 10th, two days before Yuuei's yearly School Festival.
"No, less cleavage," Jirou shook her head and gestured her hand for Yaomomo to go back.
"Is it odd I'm nervous? It's not like I haven't been in front of a crowd before, but I still feel anxious. Is that wrong?" Yaoyorozu asked as she slipped behind the folding screen to change.
"I'd totally be nervous," Jirou swung her feet back and forth from the bed she sat at before Yaoyorozu came out with yet another dress. "Hmm, no, too short," Jirou added as Yaoyorozu glanced at the skirt, then disappeared back behind the screen.
"Oh, this next dress might work," Yaoyorozu spoke from behind the screen, stepping out to reveal a pastel yellow dress designed with a conservative halter neck. It was snug and comfortable around the bust, and showed no cleavage. The skirt flowed to the floor like an elegant waterfall in light ruffles.
"Oh, that's definitely the one," Jirou gasped with a smile to match. "What's your performance look like?"
"So, imagine streamers, confetti, and lights," Yaoyorozu spoke while extending her fingers whimsically.
"I like where this is going," Jirou added.
"We're supposed to show off our quirks, and honestly, I don't know what else I could do rather than make the place look like a party. I know it's a pageant about the contestants, but I want everyone else to enjoy it too," Yaoyorozu sat on her bed next to her friend.
"That doesn't sound like a bad idea," Jirou replied before a knock disturbed the two girls inside. Jirou hopped off from the bed and cracked open the door.
"Kyo, you're not answering your texts," Ashido huffed at the door.
Jirou rolled her eyes and allowed her to step inside.
"I left my phone at my dorm," Jirou replied and flopped back onto the bed.
"Sometimes you're insufferable," Ashido folded her arms. "What if it's something important?"
"Then I'll just see it when I see it," Jirou shrugged.
Ashido shook her head while clicking her tongue in a chastising manner.
"Okay, well, before I start rambling, Momo, can I just say SLAYYYY!" Ashido squealed when her gaze landed on the tall girl seated on the side of her bed.
"Really? This dress is nearly a year old," Yaoyorozu said bashfully, pinching the fabric of the skirt between her fingers.
"Seriously? It's totally gonna be a show stopper," Ashido gushed a dreamy sigh before abruptly speaking full of energy. "And girls! We also proposed another party."
"A party? Like in the dorms?" Jirou lifted herself up from the bed and turned around.
"Yea, before the Festival, instead of us going to 3B, they're coming here," Ashido explained.
"Oh gosh, remind me to warn 3B about our resident perv," Jirou added tiredly.
"Well it'd be easier to tell everyone if you had your phone," Ashido seemed to stress her words.
Yaoyorozu ended up giggling as Jirou defended herself, and the rest of the evening went by smoothly. For them at least.
He didn't know where he was, but where ever it was, it seemed eerily familiar.
"You're ridiculous," someone laughed.
"What do you mean? You mean you don't bite into ice cream?"
"Only maniacs do that," she gently pushed his side as they sauntered down the pavement.
Blooming sakura trees shed their petals to confirm that it was mid Spring. It was dawn, the weather was mild, the feel of the atmosphere felt perfect for a day out.
"Do you ever wonder-" the voice next to him spoke before abruptly stopping.
When he looked over, the person next to him was gone.
It had happened again.
He jolted up in his bed, sucking in panicked breathes as he blinked back into reality. Moonlight glowed brightly from outside, almost like it was trying to blind him as he woke up. He rubbed his head, the minor headache he had leaving as he sat straight up in his covers.
He had been having dreams like this since the end of Fall, and they hadn't left. It only reminded him of how useless and incompetent he was. Every dream where he was with her, he always lost her.
Every. Single. Nightmare.
And he blamed himself for it in real life too.
Just a dream, it's nothing.
He swiped a hand over his eyes before standing from his bed to open his bathroom door. He outstretched an arm for a wide stretch, using the other to flick on the lights.
Click.
He looked at the light switch puzzled and attempted two more tries.
Click, click click.
He squinted his eyes confused before reaching for his main dorm light.
Click.
"Why are none of the lights working?" Kaminari muttered to himself before hearing a knock at his door.
"Hey," a dead tired Koda yawned, scratching his head.
"Are your lights out too?" Kaminari asked.
"Yeah," he responded like a zombie. "Oh and. . .you didn't happen to feel something weird, did you?" He questioned absentmindedly.
"Feel what?" Kaminari tilted his head before Oijiro's door opened from down the hallway.
"Oh, you guys are awake too?" He waved from the dark corridor, the only light that they had to see one another was from the moonlight that seeped through the windows.
"Oijiro, did you feel that too?" Koda asked timidly.
"Yeah, I got up because my entire body hurt," he scratched his neck as he came up to the boys by Kaminari's dorm. "When I went to go to the bathroom my lights were out."
Iida stepped out of his dorm and into the hall.
"Why is everyone up, what's going on?" Kaminari looked around to everyone on his floor.
"Something woke me up," Koda answered nervously. "Except, I don't know what."
"Hey Iida, did you feel that?" Oijiro turned to the yawning Iida travelling toward them.
"It was painful enough to wake me up," the tall boy admitted, resting his glasses on the bridge of his nose.
"What are you guys talking about? I didn't feel anything?" Kaminari scrunched his brows together confused before he heard two voices talking from beyond the elevator.
"Look, the boys are up, let's go ask," Hagakure tugged on Jirou's arm for her to walk faster. "Did you guys feel that too?"
Jirou seemed either pissed to be woken up, or agitated about something Kaminari didn't know about.
"I felt like I was being stabbed by needles or something, I don't know about you," Oijiro confessed.
"Needles? It was more closer to multiple jabs in the ribs," Iida rubbed his chin.
"The other girls say they haven't felt anything, but Tsu and Ocha just checked and power to their dorm is off too, so I think this floor caused it," Hagakure's phone screen lit up the hall and blinded everyone's eyes.
"It could just be some weird faulty stuff with the entire building," Oijiro stretched his arm and tail in the air. "We can get the power sorted out by tomorrow morning."
"I agree, for now let's rest," Iida nodded in agreement, with a chop of his arm he marched back into his dorm, the other boys did the same.
Hagakure waved a hand 'goodnight' before trudging back to the girl's side, leaving Jirou and Kaminari alone.
"Kaminari. . ?" a quiet Jirou asked in the newfound silence, the two of them being showered in moonlight.
"Yeah?"
"You'd tell me if something was wrong, right?"
He hesitated.
"Yeah, why?"
"I just. . .wanted to know," she replied timidly before a yawn escaped her mouth. "I'm going back to bed. Goodnight Kaminari."
"Goodnight," he echoed back and disappeared into his dorm.
Jirou hugged her arms with a light shiver. Power to the whole building was out, which meant the heat was shut off as well. She grabbed onto the handle of her room and paused to stare back at the dorm across hers. The door was closed. The halls were dead silent.
Something was wrong.
She looked down at her left palm, using the fingers from her opposite hand to feel each individual line and crease.
The pain everyone felt wasn't from some faulty manufacturing error of the dormitories.
It was from Kaminari.
She knew because she had felt it before.
And she knew he was lying.
Author's Note: The best chapter is going to be the last one released today. I hope you enjoyed reading this super long story with me and all your comments honestly made my day. Thank you!