What Is A Hero?

Part 1 : Chapter 15

A drop from the sky reached the surface of the earth.

Then another.

And another.

Until drizzles turned into torrent raining. The pitter-patter was heard in a distance on umbrellas and rooftops. The rain soaked the paved ground and those who were unlucky enough to be in the middle of the rain without shelter.

One of those people was a boy, but he paid no mind. He simply stood outside. His face expressed no emotion and stared at the floor. The boy's hair was soaked, which allowed the tears of the sky to run down his face as if he were crying.

He finally raised his head, breathing out slowly.

"This is so stupid." He scoffed. The boy began his walk to the place he dreaded going back to. Back to the place where he had to face the truth of the reality he had woven himself.

"I'm back with some water!" Iida dutifully announced a little above the normal conversational tone. However, that depends on the type of conversation: like Bakugou who communicates with Denki and Eijiro via shouting.

On the topic of conversations, Iida came back and knew he had missed something important. Ochako was staring in a complete daze at a sweet-smiling Izuku. She was pinker in the face than usual.

But abruptly, in the silence that neither Shinso nor himself would break, Ochako hiccupped. Her hand slapped over her mouth just as surprised as Iida was at the sudden small yet high-pitched sound.

Unfortunately, the feable attempt to conceal her hiccups did nothing to stop it. She continued to hiccup one after another. Her hiccups now filled the silence.

Iida gaped. "Uraraka! Is this a result of-" He questioned as he pointlessly gave instructions to help Uraraka with her predicament.

"Did you just shock her so much that she got the hiccups?" Shinso asked Midoriya. His monotone gave the impression he wasn't surprised, but definitely not disappointed either. He was just slightly curious. Did he not realize what he was implying by saying what he had said? Or was it a game to him?

Shinso made the mistake of speaking about Izuku's physical appearance. He supposed that is why the green-haired teen was out to get him. Albeit, honestly, he occasionally had to make an effort to see him as his peer instead of a child.

In this situation, this was one of those times where he had to decipher whether this was his child-like tendencies speaking or he was actually generally interested in her. The latter being weird if not for his mind respectfully shoving the fact that he was a fifteen-year-old into his senses.

"Huh, did I? Why would it be that shocking?" Izuku looked at him with - dare he analyze - genuine confusion. If he was faking his pondering expression that soon morphed into a look of realization, he had Shinso fooled. "Wait," he looked at the hiccupping brunette and back to Shinso, "wait."

He was temporarily speechless, but Shinso could tell his gears were turning the wrong way. Then, Shinso saw his lips tug up into a smile. In the worse case scenario, Midoriya would be laughing hysterically and teasing Ochako.

But he was quiet.

Shinso shifted in his seat, glancing at the aforementioned girl. She had made eye contact with Izuku and now they were having a staring competition. Most likely waiting for a reaction from the other.

Finally, Izuku made a move. He looked away as his inner drama queen switched on. "Stop staring at me like that, Ochako-chan. You're making me blush. I didn't know you thought of me in that way," he said coyly. His right hand was raised to hide his mouth, while he glanced at Ochako in the same coy demeaner as his voice.

"Chan!" Ochako exclaimed in a surprised stutter.

But Izuku wasn't done yet. His head turned completely to face Iida and Uraraka. "If you would like," he said in a high-pitched 'girly' voice, "we could go on a date."

"Oh." That was all Shinso and Iida could muster out.

Uraraka choked once again.

After recovering from the rather unexpected incident, she quickly turned down Izuku's... offer. He replied with feign heartbreak, having a monologue about 'being rejected after bringing up the courage'.

She blamed herself for reacting the way she did. Of course he was joking about being jealous! Or he just wanted attention.

Now, she put ideas in his head; he had a new method of bothering her. He was truly on his way to becoming a sadist - if not already one from his days as a villain.

She nearly had a heart attack and she wasn't sure how to feel about a boy asking her for a date with a typical 'shy-girl' voice. She didn't know where to start. And she dreaded the high chances that Izuku was planning to tease her again in that flirtatious manner.

If you could call it flirting.

"Ochako-chan, has lunch already ended. How long must I wait to see you face-to-face and have the chance to be in your embra-"

"Let's go. This is too much." Shinso dragged Izuku away by the collar. Not before mumbling that they would be heading to class first. In normal circumstances, Uraraka and Iida saw Shinso as someone who would not interfere. Although, this was not normal circumstances and he must have been disturbed by Izuku's acting too.

In any case, Uraraka was thankful Shinso dragged him away. She needed time to process what in the world just happened. She needed to cool down too; her face was burning.

Can you at least stop calling me 'Ochako-chan'? Uraraka thought, cringing at the recent memories. But at least his not calling me 'Ochako-kun' to fully commit to his school-girl act.

During Ochako's inner turmoil, Shinso and Izuku ran into their own troubling situation. They had already made it to the hallways.

Shinso let go of Izuku at one point. He kept humming a song only he could hear. Something about his happy expression made Shinso squint his eyes and caused puckering between his eyebrows.

"You are really something," he wanted to say. On the other hand, not wanting to converse with him kept Shinso from saying anything. He did not want a word out of this guy after that traumatizing incident just minutes ago.

"Hey, Shinso."

And his talking.

Maybe if I pretend I didn't hear anything he will leave me alone.

"I'm not going to stop bothering you if you ignore me!" He laughed at Shinso's expression that became more enervated than it was. He glanced at the back, appearing to have spotted something interesting.

That look gave Shinso a bad feeling.

However, Izuku contradicted that quick dark-look with an overly cheerful grin. He twirled around to face Shinso and walked backwards. "What do you think about asking that Denki-guy some advice? He seems to have some bad ideas I could dig into."

"Since when do you ask me about your sadist plans?"

"Well--" Before Shinso could process, Izuku had walked into someone. The impact between the two had resulted in the boy tripping. Fortunately, Shinso was there to catch Midoriya before he could hit the floor.

"Thank you, Shinso," Izuku said. There was something wrong with his face again. Was he... smirking?

"Bakugou! Calm down!"

"Let go of me. I had enough of this guy all day!"

Again, Shinso could not react. In a blink of an eye, Izuku's body was being slammed against the wall.