Lightning Serenade

Chapter 83: Metro II

A/N: Only one scene this time: Hitoshi's. I have surgery tomorrow morning, and I'm nervous. I keep psyching myself. No joke: On the drive home from work today, I thought to myself, "what if my creativity is stored in my tonsils and once they take them out I won't be able to finish this story?" Lmao. I'm a mess! Please enjoy! If you don't get a chapter back right away, I might still be alive, just too out of it to write if the pain meds interact with my other meds too much. If you don't hear from me on Discord... well... RIP, I guess. Lmfao! See you on the flip side! <3

"Not you! Anyone but you! Please!"

Hitoshi swore under his breath, causing his former foster care caseworker to flinch. Hitoshi opened his mouth to apologize, thought better of it, and promptly snapped his mouth shut again, opting to back out of the side panel room, hands up in a placating manner.

Of all the goddamn people, it had to be Wakakuro Seibo.

Hitoshi did a quick visual check in both directions and listened carefully but didn't hear or see any indication of anyone else coming to help. Huffing at the unfortunate circumstances, he shoved an irritated hand through his hair, glancing at the still-terrified gaze of Wakakuro. The emotion in his eyes wasn't anything new, but the higher level of absolute terror and panic was.

Hitoshi, not moving anything but his eyes, did a quick visual scan of the man, and it didn't seem like he was majorly injured and in need of immediate assistance. By "stuck," Wakakuro seemed to be trapped against the wall between a ladder leading up to the city streets by the bent metal of the ladder that must have been crushed in the chaos, but it didn't seem that any of Wakakuro's limbs were crushed, just his clothing, so Hitoshi had time to work through this diplomatically. Well, that was unfortunate. It would have been much easier to rush the situation and apologize for the mental scars afterwards, explaining it all away due to the nature of emergency of the situation.

Hitoshi took another deep breath and coughed, the dust sticking in the back of his throat, making Wakakuro flinch again, and Hitoshi sighed. It looked like they were their only options, so they were stuck with each other, whether they liked it or not. Hitoshi was also on a time limit; he had his soulmate to save, after all.

"I'm a Pro Hero," Hitoshi said, stepping cautiously and slowly into the room again, like he was approaching a wild animal. "Pro Hero Mindjack. I graduated UA this year—"

"You're lying," Wakakuro accused, fear still deeply lacing his voice. "I haven't heard of you."

"I'm an underground hero," Hitoshi said. "If you would think about it for two seconds, you would realize that is the best fit for my quirk."

Wakakuro flinched, and Hitoshi ran his hand through his hair again. Hitoshi forced himself to relax, making his shoulders drop, trying to get Wakakuro to mirror him, even just a little.

"Sorry," Hitoshi apologized. "But there's no one else coming—"

Wakakuro broke out into a coughing fit, and it went on longer than Hitoshi felt comfortable with. Just as Hitoshi was about to step forward—to do what, he didn't know—Wakakuro finally regained control over his lungs again.

"You're a villain, aren't you?"

"I have my hero license," Hitoshi said, reaching for his pocket.

"Those can be faked."

"My soulmate, you remember him, right?" Hitoshi asked, wondering if he could use his more influential and public soulmate as his way in, at least long enough to get this former foster care caseworker out of there.

Wakakuro flinched, and Hitoshi swore under his breath.

Right, no questions, got it.

"Sorry," Hitoshi apologized, again, shaking his head. "Monoma Neito. He's Phantom Thief, now. You have to know Phantom Thief. He's—"