Mystery from Another World--MHA

Part 186: This is Not a Drill

Medea was crying still.

The vines were everywhere. The whole area was a mass of them. Monama had pulled her behind a tree and a weapons rack, but they were still getting hemmed in.

"You need to get a grip!" Monama shook her. "We need your fire." He reached out and burned through some of the vines as they got too close. "Fire is actually Ibara's weakness. We could stop her...or slow her down, at least. I mean, she's still resistant, but if you expose it for long enough..."

"I'm a wreck..." Medea moaned, "I'm sorry, I...I can't think with Lethe.. I'm pathetic. All this time, and I know...and yet I can't stand up to him."

"I think you tried," Monama said.

"Not hard enough..." Medea covered her face. "I almost agreed to.... How could I be so stupid?!"

"You were trying to help me," Monama said.

"I know. That was all I could think of. I couldn't fight him!" Medea was refusing to be dissuaded from her self hatred spiral. "Why couldn't I just fight him...?"

Monama didn't know what to do.

"Hey!" He grabbed her hands and pulled them away from her face. "Look at me." Medea looked up.

"Whatever Lethe said to you, he's not right," Monama said, "He's been brainwashed by the Originals, got it? So just ignore it. Think of it as it wasn't really him talking. If it was a ninja saying that to you, would you listen?"

"Well, no..."

"Then there you go. Just think of him as a ninja."

"But he's still my brother," Medea said.

"Would your brother do that to Ibara?" Monama said.

Medea bit her lip. "Maybe he would..."

"The point is, you can't try to figure this out now," Monama said, "You can talk about it later, when we're out of this, but for now, you need to pretend he's not here. Can you do that?"

Medea bit her lip. "I...I can try..."

"Great!" Monama said, "That's all I needed to hear."

"You're kind of being weird right now..." Medea said, "I mean, weirder than usual..."

"Great, you're back to normal," Monama said.

Medea's face wavered. "Uh...no, I don't think so..."

"Maybe this will help." Monama kissed her.

Medea gaped at him.

"Sorry, I've heard that can help people calm down," Monama said.

[It's actually true. I learned that from another fan fic, of all things (His pain, BakugoxCamie fic, high in angst and trauma, some smut that I skipped. Read at your own risk). Also hugging can help, though not always if one's having a panic attack. Depends on the person. It helps me. It doesn't help people with social anxiety usually though.]

"Uh huh..." Medea said blankly, "Right...um, maybe we should escape this, huh?"

"Yes, good idea." Monama was glad she was out of it.

Why had he done that? It had worked...but he didn't usually think of ideas like that.... Still, she'd done it before, so it just kind of made sense it would work, right?

It wasn't that she was cute or anything...right?

He did not have a crush! She was crazy!

Wait, wasn't he supposed to be setting stuff on fire right now?