Colors in the Dark

[49] Oddities

After everything that had happened, it was almost strange to return to normality. Ayami was once again swept up in a constant workload from her classes in combination with Aizawa's extra training lessons, but it was nice to return to the familiar routine.

Fall had come upon them, and Ayami had attended Sir Nighteye's funeral, expressing sorrow for missing his last moments and never getting to say goodbye to him, but she at least managed to give him a proper farewell then. The Clairvoyant Hero, civilian name Sasaki Mirai, was lain to rest.

Despite that sad event, she was glad to hear that Eri's fever had begun to die off, eventually recovering from the illness entirely, though she was still too unstable for visitors just yet. The horn on her head that glowed with her quirk apparently shrank as she got better.

As she had heard before, Work Studies were put on hold after the mess with the Shie Hassaikai, so she had to bid her time with Ryuukyuu, a "goodbye-for-now." She at least managed to make it back on the agency and do her part of final paperwork before leaving the Dragon Hero's agency for good.

To be honest with herself, she'd miss her team- working with Hadou, Tsu, and Ochaco on real missions had brought action to her life that schoolwork just couldn't match- but the breather of simplicity was appreciated. She was finally caught up on most of her classes, and was soon back in the usual swing of things.

From Bakugou and Todoroki's extra session for the provisional licensing exam came some hilarious pictures, credit to the Camie girl from Shiketsu, using her illusion quirk to create a glamorized version of the icyhot boy. The appropriately-dubbed Glamouroki was a hit with the rest of the class, who enjoyed the fruits of the Remedial Course's labor.

The redhead made her way to her room for the night, messing around on her phone and talking to her spirits until she was tired enough to fall asleep- not that the constant barking of dogs was any help. Once that sleepy feeling was finally upon her, Ayami bid the colorful glows goodnight, shutting her eyes to the view of all her galactic lights, and began to drift off.

That peaceful state of near-sleep was shattered when a sharp scream erupted from one of the lower floors, the sound carrying directly up to her.

Ayami shot up, immediately fully awake. Her breath caught in her throat when she heard the piercing noise, leaving her respiration ragged, but there were no follow-up sounds. The alarms hadn't gone off, so no one had broken in, and considering the voice was vaguely familiar, if not a little high-pitched, she came to the conclusion one of her classmates had been doing something stupid.

The ginger fell back on her bed with a groan. "I had almost fallen asleep, and now my heart's racing... there's no way I'll be able to get a good night's rest now..."

~

By the time her morning alarm had gone off, Ayami had (predictably) hardly slept, and the rest she did get was half-hearted dozing at best. Once the tone went off to signal she had to get ready for class and she saw sunlight coming in from the corners of her drapes, she sighed.

"Great... I'm probably going to bomb Mic's English test today, and there's a good chance I'll hardly be even able to keep my eyes open during Ectoplasm's math lectures. Who even screams that loudly in the middle of the night...?"

As she got into uniform and gathered her things together, Asclepius comforted her. "You know I'll try my best to help you out, and Gaia can give you a good zap if you start to doze. Anyway, once we're ready, we should consult the rest of the class and try to figure out who the screamer was."