Happy Ending ((TENYA IIDA X OC))

Chapter 27

Seven days out of the fifteen given came and went in a blur.

During that week, things on Dream Walker's end weren't exactly quiet. His goon, Satsujin, had been active nearly everyday in causing terror around Musutafu and Tokyo; so much so that the already struggling pros were having difficulty keeping up with him.

I wished for nothing more than to lend them my aid, but all I was able to do then was give all of my attention to the task that I was given — creating a battle plan.

A lot of different ideas rattled my brain all hours of the day, but none seemed solid enough to keep everyone safe simultaneously. As the days ticked by, it dawned on me more and more that I was preparing my former classmates for something very closely related to a war, and I predicted Dream Walker was up to something similar. Satsujin was overly active, but Dream Walker was oddly absent; there haven't even been any cases in which people have gone missing, which wasn't exactly a comforting thought.

Dream Walker was planning something big that he found necessary to focus all of his attention onto, and frankly it wasn't something that I was looking forward to.

I sat up at my desk, staring at the clock as the minutes ticked by, hypothesizing what Dream Walker could be planning.

For all I knew, he was putting all his time and energy into training his Living Dead well enough to be able to take on pros; but then again, he could be taking this time to strengthen himself while I've barely been given a moment to close my eyes.

I was exhausted, and that was no secret. I knew that now wasn't exactly a good time to be running on two hours of sleep, but the tightness of time didn't allow anymore than that. Despite it, I kept focused.

Light hours were meant for the 1-A students. They were required to arrive at U.A. an hour and a half early to receive extra training time and stayed an hour an a half late for the same reason. I could tell, however sparsely, that they were improving. Maybe, just maybe, they'd be able to hold their own against Dream Walker.

Though, I didn't think 'maybe' was going to be enough for anyone anymore.

And, during the night hours when I was alone, I'd come up with strategies. So far, I had only come to scrap them and start anew, but I kept faith that I would soon come up with something worthwhile.

I leaned back in my seat and sighed heavily whilst gently tugging my locket out from under my shirt collar. I gazed down at the silver and studied the 'H' engraved in the metal and ran my thumb against the intricate designs circling around it. I had been biting my lip for the past hour, though this time it felt as if I tore the skin.

What would Dad think of me now?

I looked away from the locket, letting it drop against my chest as I turned my gaze toward the slightly opened window. A light breeze filtered into the room, keeping it cool as I thought.

I never thought for a second that I'd be fighting a nearly impossible war so close to my birthday; let alone Dream Walker's.

At that moment I thought of how he must've been like before he went rouge. I was never given a solid idea, since his sister was so much younger than he was, and the files complied never delved into something so trivial. Although it was foolish, I wondered if we were similar — the old him and me, I mean. From our time together, I never really thought about it, so I never bothered to notice his mannerisms.

Then my mind wandered to his premature departure and how he did it to save my life. He did it for a selfish motive, but the more I thought about it, the more it felt as if there was something deeper to his meaning; something he wanted me to catch onto on my own.