Pariah || BNHA OC

Artifice

"W-What if someone doesn't hold back their quirk and one of us gets hurt? We're gonna die."

"We'll be fine. I'll protect you."

"Okay, but what if a tree falls on us? I'm inattentive and you've only got one good eye. We'd never see it coming!"

"Doesn't sound likely."

"Sure, but what if this is all some ploy by the school to get rid of us and disguise it as a game?"

"Even more unlikely."

"Oh god, you didn't say it was impossible."

Yuta's sanity was hanging on by a very, very thin thread. The forested path helped distract him from Flowerhead's ludicrous fears and whatever the conspiracies she thought up. The paranoid ramblings were infectious. He swore he was starting to hear footsteps near them.

The item they were protecting didn't ease his annoyance. As much as he liked Lady Aegis, he'd tear up her plush toy if he had to hear it repeat one of her catchphrases for the hundredth time.

"Careful, the birds in the trees aren't real. They're government spy drones."

Yuta stopped in place. Flowerhead scrambled back to him once she saw he wasn't walking with her. "Either relax or hide somewhere and I'll win the game for you."

"I'm so sorry. I always do this." She pulled out a handful of flowers from her head with each repeat of the word. They grew back in seconds. "I wanted to be confident but... I'm being pathetic, aren't I?"

"Very."

She yanked more flowers from her head.

Too blunt, way too blunt. Not what he wanted to say. Well, it was, but... Yuta bit his knuckle and arranged his thoughts.

"Gokai isn't U.A or anything, but you still need to be talented to get in. You're amazing whether you realize it or not. You're not actually pathetic, so stop acting like it. It's embarrassing."

He bit down harder on his finger when the silence grew too long.

"That was... really mean, but nice too. Thanks?" For the first time since he'd met her she wasn't fidgeting.

He was the stupid one for not thinking his words through first. "I didn't have time to think over what to say. My brain was fighting with me. Sorry if I sounded mean."

"You're fine. That happens to me too. Talking to people is so—"

"Stressful and confusing?"

"Yes, Haizaki-kun! I thought I was the only one that felt like that." Flowerhead cleared her throat. She played with one of her flower's petals. "I'm Chiba, by the way."

"Just call me Yuta."

"A-Are you sure?" Flowerhead muttered the name to herself a few times. "Got it. So, Yuta, let's win. This time I mean it."

They continued walking until they reached their starting spot. The dirt path they followed led to a clearing in the forest where a white flag was planted in the ground.

She yelped from the whistle in the distance. "That's the signal to start, right? We never came up with a plan." She started hyperventilating. Or maybe she was doing breathing exercises? Hard to tell.

If she wasn't muttering to herself, he'd ask what her Quirk was. It didn't matter. How tough could a bunch of third-years be? Yuta probably had double their experience.

"Hold this." He handed her the plush Aegis then wrapped his arms around her midsection. "Don't squirm." Quivering his wings to warm them up, he rose to a hover.