Against the World

Chapter 20

MIDORIYA'S POV

"So you didn't always know you had antisocial personality disorder?"

I shook my head. "Infants don't come out of the womb not feeling anything at all, you know? You can't get diagnosed with the disorder officially until you're 18. However, most kids start showing signs by the time they're 11, but it usually begins when they're 8. It makes it hard to tell if it was trauma-induced or not."

"When did you show your first sign?"

I shrugged. "My father said I was young. I went into school knowing I was different."

"Was yours brought on by trauma?" he asked.

"I don't know. It's hard to say since I was young. Even if it was, it's not like there's an on-or-off switch. Even if it was, I can't go back in time and fix it. Some people are born with it, some develop it, and some wake up randomly with it one day. It's different for everyone, but we all cross the same finish line."

There is no cure for it.

There is no cure for me.

"Is there any chance it can become more manageable?"

"It can get slightly better with age, but I won't hit that mark for at least another ten years. It's different for everyone." When I told him he could ask about my disorder whenever, I wasn't expecting him to want to talk about it so much.

However, I would still prefer this over people trying to dig without asking.

"Do you feel fear?"

"Yes and no." I've felt fear, but not for reasons others think. "I'm not terrified that I'm going to die one day, and if someone walked in here right now and put a gun to my head, I would dare them to pull the trigger. Hell, I would be happy if they did. But if someone put a gun to your head, I would be scared of the consequences of that." I grunted, pulling the vent from its spot after working the screws for the last ten minutes. "I'm not scared of you dying. I feel nothing about it other than how it would make Kacchan feel."

He took the vent from me and set it on the floor.

"You really only saved me because of Bakugo?"

"Yes." There was no other reason for me to save him. I don't regret saving him since he's been useful and has been a decent friend. We let the conversation fizzle out as I pushed my way through the now-open vent. I hate when Ojiro and Rody can't shut security cameras down because it requires me to do annoying stuff like this. Kaminari crawled in behind me, being quiet and careful. We banged around a bit as we moved, but with the party going on below us, I doubt anyone had heard us.

When my father told me about the job I had to do tonight, I was less than enthusiastic about it. I loathe sneaking into frat houses. I spend enough time in one of them as is. But we've been having issues with a man who lives in this house. He's a member of the Vipers, but he hangs with several people who aren't. There aren't many people who know about us outside of other gangs and mafia rings. Usually, when someone in our organization meets someone outside of it, they keep their work quiet and don't drag their family into it.

He hasn't been. I've been suspecting him for a while, but my father only now found evidence that incriminated him. As soon as he found it, he told me to take care of the situation without killing him. He doesn't want him dead yet for some reason. We're only meant to scare him into acting right and keeping his damn mouth shut. If he continues to blab it after that, then he's screwed.

When we made it to the correct vent, according to Kaminari and his research, I carefully pushed it through. The security in these things is non-existent because people don't usually think that someone is going to actually crawl through a vent.