Ultra Responsibility (My Hero Academia X Spider-Man Reader)

Issue 131 - Battle of the Classes

Mina's chair had been moved.

Only by an inch or two.

It sat slightly farther away from the desk than it had yesterday, one of its legs no longer lined up with the others. Someone must have knocked it while walking past. It was such a small thing that nobody else appeared to notice.

I noticed.

I always did.

There were fresh flowers on her desk. Pink carnations this time, placed inside the same narrow vase Momo had brought from home. Beside them rested the photograph taken during our first week together. Mina stood in the middle, grinning with both hands raised above her head while the rest of us struggled to fit into the frame.

I was at the very back.

Half my face had been cut off.

She had complained about it for ten straight minutes before demanding we take another.

We never did.

I stopped beside the empty chair, wrapped my fingers around its back and carefully pushed it into place.

The metal scraped against the floor.

The room quietened.

Not entirely. Conversations continued around me, chairs shifted and Kaminari laughed at something Sero had shown him, but it all became softer. More careful.

I let go of the chair and walked to my desk.

The school festival had ended three days ago.

Three days since I had stood beneath the lights with a guitar in my hands and told an entire gymnasium about Mina Ashido. Three days since I had played for her. For a few minutes, surrounded by music and the voices of my classmates, I had almost believed things might become easier.

They hadn't.

My fingertips were still sore from the strings. Every time they brushed against my desk, I remembered the final note fading into the cheering crowd.

Then I remembered that Mina hadn't been there to hear it.

"Morning," Jiro said.

She sat sideways in her chair, one arm draped over its back. Her eyes briefly lowered towards my hands.

"Morning."

"You still aching?"

"A little."

"I told you to practise more before going on stage."

"I practised."

"For two days."

"It was enough."

Jiro stared at me.

I stared down at my desk.

She gave up with a quiet sigh. "You sounded good."

"Thanks."

"You should keep playing."

I didn't answer.

She didn't push.

That was how most conversations worked now. Someone would speak to me, trying to sound normal. I would give them just enough of a response to prove I had heard them, and then we would both wait for the silence to become uncomfortable.

Jiro turned back around.

Across the room, Midoriya was already muttering into one of his notebooks. Uraraka leaned over his shoulder while Iida tried to remind them that homeroom would begin at any moment. Todoroki sat near the window, watching the morning clouds. Bakugo had his boots on his desk and looked ready to kill anyone who asked him to move them.