Green Lightning God: Midori Raiko

Chapter 51 - Keeping up appearances

Nejire, as mentioned earlier, wasn't as air-headed as most people thought. It made a good front to some extent, but it just came across that way from her personality. But she had her quiet, reflective moments, and was quite good at reading people cues, especially from her closest friends. 

So when she and Tamaki were nervously awaiting the return of their respective boyfriends from their work studies, she became gradually more concerned as the sun gradually went lower in the sky.

"Nejire, I'm sure they're fine, we would have heard otherwise by now," Tamaki tried to reassure himself as much as he was trying to reassure her.

"I knowwwwww, but what if something else happened?" She whined, slumping against the tree near the entrance to the gates they were waiting at.

"Well, I can see them now, so-" Tamaki was cut off by the girl grabbing his hand and dragging him along.

"So let's go see them!"

But as they got closer, the first thing they both noticed was the Izuku was looking really tense. But the most jarring thing was that Mirio, wasn't smiling.

"Hey, what happened?" Nejire asked them. Izuku looked really conflicted whilst Mirio was trying to keep a blank face, despite the sorrow seeping through.

"I-I'm sorry. W-we're not allowed to talk about it," Izuku responded to her. Nejire understood fully, certain operations required a level of secrecy for a variety of reasons. But it seemed this hurt more than they realised.

Nejire just smiled gently at him and hugged him. Izuku clung to her like a lifeline, and Nejire didn't want to make such a sweet boy so sad, and just hugged back as she felt her shirt dampening.

Tamaki did something similar with Mirio, the blond boy's gritted teeth evident as he buried his head into Tamaki.

"I-I need to talk to Nezu," Izuku spoke up after a little while, "t-thank you Nejire."

In response, she wiped his tears and kissed his forehead. "It'll be okay. I believe in you!" She said to him, smiling.

"Yeah, let's hope it will be."

Nezu frowned after Izuku left the room. The boy had requested the tracking details of a specific cuff camera of his, which Nezu provided freely, however he had not seen the boy so distraught before. Sure, he was a different species and decidedly not a high school student, but he was able to see straight through the overly stiff mask. The spark in Izuku's eyes were lost. 

'Something happened on his work study. Mirio will be involved. They need temporary support until it's cleared up. I do believe it has to do with Nighteye's current operation. Hound Dog is good, but not for such short term and... temporary matters, more so for long term anxiety, depression, PTSD, etc. So... taking into account their human relationships,'

"Can Nejire and Tamaki please report to my office? I am aware it is out of school hours but this is an urgent matter." Nezu announced over the P.A system. It didn't take long for the mentioned students to appear outside his office.

"Principal Nezu? You wanted to speak to us?"

"Indeed! Come in and help yourself to some tea, I made some in advance!"

Izuku was in his room. He couldn't sleep. It was about half an hour from curfew, and a few hours from lights out but wasn't feeling remotely tired. He hadn't eaten either, he wasn't really hungry. After delivering the message to Nezu he opted to head straight to his room (he told the others he had eaten and prior and wasn't feeling 100%, and they generally believed him).