Freeze Frame

Chapter 134

Third person pov

Toshinori had never experienced a fever dream before, but he had a feeling this was exactly what it happened to be like. Their car had broken down and he'd watched Chad pull a broken toaster out of the trunk and use that to fix it. The vehicle had been making weird little popping noises since then and Toshinori swore on his life he smelt smoke, but Chad showed absolutely no reaction to any of these things and looked strangely enough like he'd done this before. Thus, he wasn't going to question too far into that. Or anything, really. He'd learned keeping to himself was the best. Saved tons of confusion. 

"Why aren't we going back to UA?" Toshinori asked hesitantly, fidgeting as Chad let the car creep around the corner like it was on the prowl. They weren't terribly far from the school all things considered. A few prefectures over or so-- nothing a couple hours on a train couldn't breach. They were still dressed in their matching shirts too. The hideous thing was starting to grow on the retired pro, and he wasn't sure that was a good thing. What did this say about his character? He didn't want to think too hard about it, just like he didn't want to think too hard about what this Taco Bell Nacho Fry box was going to do to his nonexistent stomach.

"We're bitch hunting, bro." Chad said, as though Toshinori had any idea what context to take that in. Was this a hooker situation? Wait, wasn't Chad married to the guy who looked like a piece of charred buffalo jerky? "Besides, they're totally expecting us shawtys to roll up at the club. We can't walk into their waiting hands! We gotta like, take the fight to them or whatever."

"You have a broken foot." Toshinori pointed out as the car made the painstakingly slow turn. The headlights were off despite how dark it was outside which instilled Toshinori with no confidence whatsoever. They were in a sketchy looking area, and he could feel his nerves beginning to spike. He could already tell whatever was about to happen was going to involve a lot of gunfire, knives, and reliance on what little luck they had to their name. "Shouldn't we go get it healed? Check on the students and Young Eri?" 

"Bro, that's predictable. We have to be creative thinkers." Chad recited it like he was a kid in grade school. Toshinori gave him a hard side-eye, shoving another fry in his mouth and chewing slowly. Would it be rude to ask for the quirk back? He was having some doubts all of a sudden. No reason why. Not related to this situation at all, of course.

"You're right. You spontaneously developing a quirk, high-jacking a truck, hotwiring a car, and then driving across Japan in a massive looping route with no pattern or real direction wasn't creative enough to throw them off our trail." Toshinori's voice came out drenched in more sarcasm than he'd used in years. His existence was becoming more burdensome by the second, and he was not super sure this situation was helping. Was it freeing? Absolutely. Maybe a little too freeing. Toshinori needed more structure than this!

"Bro, I'm glad you agree. I knew we were on the same wavelength." They completely made it around the corner, Chad missing Toshinori's tone entirely. Ahead of them, centered in the street, was a rather large building. It was built in a U shape, the courtyard that would've been in the middle of it all fenced off by tall concrete walls. The large wooden gate that stood at the forefront of it all looked sturdy enough to keep just about anything unwanted out. The car came to a stop, Chad's head tilting in a considering manner that made Toshinori incredibly nervous for no particular reason whatsoever. "Besides, they would've called if there was a problem!" 

And there it was. This was it, wasn't it? This was what was going to end Toshinori's life. The guy just about had a heart attack when Chad pulled a flip phone out of god knows where, holding it up like it was a grand prize he'd just proudly won. It was an actual, functioning phone. He could see the time displayed on it from here. Chad had a phone-- he'd had a phone this entire time! Since when?! Toshinori absolutely couldn't do this. Or maybe he could. Should he be mad right now? He should be a lot angrier than he actually is.