The wind howls as it passes you, no longer comforting as it only reminds you that you're alone tonight. The stars above do little to light the streets, only providing a glorious view to anyone who is out at this late hour. The occasional drunk stumbles out of a nearby bar, but they never take a moment to enjoy the view of the night sky, only focusing on trying to find a way home in their drunken state.
It's past 11 pm, meaning you are on your nightly patrol, sitting silently on a rooftop, waiting for any signs of distress. You gaze upward at the little glittering lights, tracing constellations with your fingertip. Some real, and others that you've made up in your free time.
The stars are your only source of comfort at the moment.
The Bakusquad hasn't tried to talk to you since your quarrel yesterday. You spent the whole day by yourself and ended up eating lunch alone on the roof to avoid them. You know it is better this way. The fewer connections you have, the easier it will be for everyone when it's time for you to leave in a couple of months.
The selfish part of your brain demands that you apologize to them, but you know it won't make them feel better. The squad was quiet all day today. Too quiet. They moped around, avoiding contact with you at all costs. Kaminari even ran into a wall in an attempt to avoid you in the hallways. The whole class noticed their strange behavior and asked if they were alright. But, every time they would clam up and refuse to say a word. Except for Bakugo who would flip middle fingers at them.
You figure it's only a matter of time before they get over it and become their cheery selves once again. You aren't an active part of their lives anyway, so you don't understand why they are still upset. You only knew them for a little over a week.
You shake your head to get rid of your thoughts, wanting to forget any of this ever happened. You close your eyes for a moment, allowing yourself to repress the unwanted emotions trying to rise in your chest and rip you apart. Your throat burns and your chest aches.
You have other friends though. You have Rumi, Keigo, and Hakamata. You have Toshinori, who's like a father to you. You have a family. But, the memories of them don't help the numb feeling in your chest when you think about how you hurt your Class 1-A goofballs. For the first time in years, you feel alone.
The Bakusquad managed to worm their way into your life in only a week. It took months for you to trust Toshinori when you first met him, but here these kids are, managing to soften you up in only a couple of days with their strange behavior and references.
Out of nowhere, a high-pitch scream pierces the air. Your eyes shoot open as you scan the street, seeing that a block down, a small group is getting surrounded by a much larger group of people who don't look friendly.
You use your quirk to teleport in between the groups and act as a shield, your arrival stunning the group and stopping their advance. Thieves don't usually travel in groups of more than 6 and rarely attack other people. There are at least 15 people in the group, all with some type of mutant quirk. A gang then.
You use their surprise to your advantage, attacking the ring leader who has the scales of a reptile covering his body. Your fist socks him hard enough that the audible crunch of his nose makes the other members take a wary step back.
You smirk under your mask, throwing the leader to the ground by his collar and stepping over him and towards the other members. You keep your posture loose and relaxed, eyes glowing blood red beneath your hood.
"You have exactly three seconds to drop your weapons and surrender before I take you all into custody. I'm in a bad mood right now, so it'd be wise to give up while you have the chance."
Instead, two guys charge at you with knives. "Fine, we'll do this the hard way," You grumble, letting them pass through you and causing them to run into each other and fall to the ground.
A laser shoots through the air towards you, but you only have to slightly tilt your head so that it brushes past your hood. You lunge forward grabbing onto the man by the collar of his cheetah-print shirt and pulling his face down to connect with your knee. He wails in pain and falls limp to the ground from the force.
You leave him to the side as you dodge another attack. A lady with snakes for hair charges forward, screaming viciously while bearing several sharp fangs. You wait until she's directly in front of you before turning, grabbing one of her wrists, and using your other hand to apply pressure to her upper back and sending her crashing into the pavement.
You wait for another onslaught but realize no one else is trying to approach you. You barely did anything and you already took down a third of their members. You gesture for the other ones to charge at you, but instead, they turn and run away like a bunch of pansies.
They don't even attempt to save their friends.
You debate whether or not to chase after them, deciding to check on the people you're saving first. When you turn around though, instead of being met with the wide, frightened eyes of some random civilians, you are gazing into deep vermillion pools. The rage-filled orbs you quickly recognize belong to Bakugo Katsuki, and beside him is Kirishima, and behind them are Kaminari, Sero, and Mina.
"Are you kids alright?" You ask them with a lowered voice, trying to keep them from recognizing you.
"We're fine," Bakugo sneers, glaring daggers at your form, "We didn't need your help." With a growl, he stuffs his hands deep into his pockets, pretending like handling those bad guys would have been the easiest thing in the world. But his hands were out, shielding the others just moments ago.
"Yeah! We're all good, thanks" Kirishima says, sending you a thumbs up. But his smile is shaky and the others behind him are too. Kaminari and Sero look shaken by the close encounter and Mina seems a bit frightened.
You open your stance as a way to relax them, knowing that body language has a major impact on people when they are scared. But, they're safe now, you'll make sure of that
"We just got saved by Phantom!" Mina bounces back to normal as soon as she realizes who exactly saved them. One of her favorite heroes, who happens to be a female badass. She pushes past the wall of boys, jumping on the balls of her feet and clapping her hands together, "Can I have your autograph? And a picture? Your fighting style is so badass! I can't believe I get to meet you! You're my idol!"
You sweatdrop a little at her enthusiasm, positive if Mina knew who you are under the hood she wouldn't be nearly as excited to see you. But, you don't want to ruin this for her. You know she's a huge fan of your hero persona after an entire week of her ranting about how kickass Phantom is and how she wants to meet her, well...you.
"Sure," You sigh, holding out a hand, "Do you have anything to write with?" Mina looks around frantically, before locating her school bag forgotten on the sidewalk. She snatches it off the ground and pulls out a pen and notebook, shoving them into your awaiting hands.
You sign your hero name and goto symbol in glossy black ink before handing the notebook back to the clapping girl. Immediately after, she pulls you into a side hug and goes to take the picture. You promptly grab your hood and pull it down to cover your eyes as the shutter goes off with a bright flash.
"Wah! It looks so good! I'm going to treasure this forever!" Mina exclaims after inspecting the photo, then jumps over to the boys and shows them her screen.
Mina comes back to you and shows you the picture, with a grin. In the picture, she has the biggest smile on her face, an arm wrapped around your shoulders, and the other is holding up her notebook that displays your signature. Meanwhile, you look like an edgy teenager trying to hide in the family photo. Only your mouth is visible and it is planted in a straight line.
"Looks good," You respond, causing her to squeal but then you continue, "What are you kids doing out so late anyway?" The Bakusquad freezes in place at your question, still hanging in the air as they silently debate whether or not to tell you.
"We were at the arcade," Bakugo says bluntly, rolling his eyes, "These idiots lost track of time."
"Dude don't tell her that! We don't want her thinking we're irresponsible!" Sero cries and Kaminari nods in agreement. They start arguing as you turn away to scan the street where you were fighting just moments ago.
You grunt, glancing down at the villains you knocked out. You need to take them to the police station, and you still need to go after their buddies. But, when you look over your shoulder at Kaminari and Mina getting yelled at by Bakugo for something as he pulls their ears, you know what you have to do first.
You turn back around to face them, catching their attention and stretching out your arms. "Grab on," You demand. The squad gives you a confused look, but you wiggle your fingers to signal them to hurry up. Mina squeals in delight, grabbing your arm and holding it against her chest. Sharing a confused look, the boys grab onto your other arm as well.
"Hold on tight," You warn them. Ignoring their sudden protests as you teleport the shouting teenagers.
Within a split second, you're standing in front of the train station. Luckily, it isn't busy at this late hour, so no one notices the six of you appear out of thin air. A moment later, Kaminari runs to the nearest trashcan and pukes his guts out, while Sero and Kirishima double over on the ground. Mina looks a little queezy and Bakugo seems ready to join Kaminari with his head in the trashcan.
First-time teleportation always seems to do that to people.
"Go home, I need to track down the rest of those bad guys. Take care of each other and get home safely." You tell them sternly, and with that, you're gone.
•••••
You went back and rounded up the last of the gang members and hand them over to the police with only minor injuries. As rough as you always act, you try to give villains a chance to surrender before you fight them, only using extreme force when it's necessary.
By the time you finish your paperwork, the sun is up in the sky, peeking between the blinds of your home office. You shuffle to your bedroom once the work is done, only to flop on your bed and lay your head on the pillow as soon as your alarm goes off. A loud, inhuman shout of frustration leaves you as you tug at your hair and slam your hand into the damn thing.
It's going to be another long day.
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Chapter Meme: