Villain to Hero: Naruko Motomiya

Chapter 11: End of Summer

The sun had fully set now, and only the street lights and stores lit the streets. With his run interrupted by Higuchi, he had decided to cut it short and to instead take a walk to calm himself down from the sudden attack. Walking down the sidewalk, he saw a large crowd of people huddling around an electronics store with TV's on display that showed the news. Getting closer, he could just make out what they were all watching.

Motomiya stared at the windows full of televisions and gasped. On the screens, he could make out Eraserhead, Vlad King, and principal Nezu all at a press conference. He couldn't tell exactly what they were saying from all the way in the back, but he knew that something had gone wrong.

"The League again? Why hasn't UA taken any precautions?" A woman a few people in front of him said.

"UA? The League? What's going on?" He asked, hoping someone would answer him. "What happened to my school?" His heart pounded in his ears. He knew nothing about what was going on. For all he knew, the school could've been destroyed along with his hopes and dreams.

"The League of Villains attacked the first year hero course at a summer camp. Over half of them got hurt, and the others are all probably mentally scarred from it," a man beside him told him.

"'Your school?' You go to UA!" A woman shouted, pointing at him. The eyes of the crowd were all drawn to him and him alone.

Motomiya looked around, startled and uncomfortable with the amount of attention he was getting.

"Are you a hero course student?", "How has UA protected its students?", "Do you trust UA with your safety after this?", "Have you been attacked by a villain during your time at UA?" All of these questions and demands were shouted and screamed at him, their words eventually bluring together into one big mess of concern and hate.

He couldn't take it. He could hear his heart pounding louder in his ears, and with each breath he took, no air made its way in. He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. He couldn't do anything, and he felt like he was about to die. He didn't know what was going on, both with how he was feeling and with what happened to his underclassmen. It felt as if he were about to shatter into a million pieces right at that moment. Then, he felt a gentle hand be placed on his shoulder. He jumped at the sudden touch, but when he looked, he calmed down slightly.

"Shouldn't you give the boy a break? He doesn't know any more than we do," An elderly man told the crowd. "He wasn't involved in the summer training camp incident. Do you expect him to know something he wasn't a part of?"

"He's still a UA student!" A woman yelled back.

"Exactly. He's just a student," The elderly man said. He turned to face Motomiya. "Why don't you go home and let the adults deal with everything, okay?"

Home was the last place he wanted to be at, but the man was right. It would be better for him to leave. With his heart calming down, and the air finally got to his lungs, he tried calming himself down and walked away from the crowd, trying his best to ignore the angry shouts from the crowd.

This night had gone so wrong in such a short time. First, it was with being attacked by Higuchi. Next, it was with the sudden attack on UA students. Finally, it was with being shouted at and demanded answers he didn't know from a crowd. Things had been going great for him for the first time in his life, and even though he was used to being in such a dark place, he never knew that he would be pushed back into it again. Now that it was over, he was able to claw himself back out from the dark place, even if it had drawn him back for just a moment.

~

A couple of days had passed since the Kamino Ward incident and the press conference discussing the summer training camp incident. The day after the incident, Motomiya had tried to get into the UA campus, but because of the amount of press crowding the gates of the UA border, he couldn't. He hadn't had the chance to train his quirk, so he instead focused on training his body. Because of his lack of money for a gym membership, he went on long, extensive runs, both as a way to get in shape but also as a way to kill time. Soon, he would join the rest of his class at school and train to become heroes alongside them. He was both excited and nervous about this.

He felt a buzz come from his pocket and slowed his running to a stop, sweat trickling down his face and seeping through his sweatshirt from the summer heat and exercise. He pulled his phone from his pocket and turned it on. He saw that he had an email notification and pressed it, opening it up. He read who it was from and let out a sigh of relief. It was from Aozora. It read:

"Morning, Motomiya! I'm sure you're well aware of what happened to our first year students in the hero course during the summer and how it's caused people to have some safety concerns with our students. To keep our students at UA safe, we ask that all students move into dormitories on the UA campus where they would be safe from any and all villain attacks, with the permission of parents, of course. I'll stop by your place, and we'll discuss this with your parents at 12 pm today. We hope that you enjoy your stay in the UA dorms starting second term.

Stressfully,
Kaito Aozora."

Dormitories? It felt like everything had gone right again. With the dorms, he could live in an actual house and sleep in an actual bed instead of just sleeping on a bench in the cold of night with bugs trying the crawl on him. He would have a home again. Then he remembered the last part of the email. He would have to have a meeting with his dad to get permission to live in the dorms. He would need to see his dad again.

"Fuck."