maybe | hitoshi shinsou x reader

~chapter 15~

You wake up the next day, and somehow the world is still whole. Which shouldn't be surprising, really—it was only one villain attack, and those kinds of things happen all over the world everyday—but everything still feels shifted off its axis. A part of you is waiting for something to jump out from the shadows at you while you're brushing your teeth or pulling on your school uniform, no matter how illogical you know it is. You know it's fine, that the heroes handled it and the villains are locked up, that there's (supposed to be) nothing to worry about, but that doesn't keep you from throwing looks over your shoulder every once in a while, just in case.

You manage to slip out of your apartment unscathed, but filled with irrational adrenaline and flinching at every odd shadow.

What a great way to start your day.

At least you're not alone in your jumpiness; the whole city seems on edge with you. People walk a bit too fast, act a bit too curt, festering in their fear. After all, Hosu's not too far from where you live, so the tragedy of it really hits home.

And it's weird thinking about it that way—the tragedy—but that's what everyone's been calling it, at least everyone you've heard.

(And acknowledging the fact that there's people out there who see what happened yesterday as something to celebrate is...unsettling to say the least. Way too early for that type of contemplation anyway, so you shove it to the back of your brain for examination at a later date. Though it's not like it's going to be any easier to face then; realizing there are just some people who want to see the world burn is a hard pill to swallow at any age.)

U.A. is a bit different when you arrive. Nothing's changed physically, but no one's quite as loud and no one feels quite as safe and everything is steeped in a dull gray haze, crumbling away at some of the last dregs of your naivety. And you'd rather liked your naivety—ignorance is bliss, and all that—so that sucks.

Well it does worse than suck, it leaves you feeling hollow and cold and spiraling into an existential crisis you're too young to be having, but just saying it sucks feels more concise and keeps you from having to dwell too much on the futility of existence, which is nice. The only nice thing to happen so far, actually.

Walking into class actually helps stave off some of that fun existential angst, so you guess that's Good Things: 2 and Bad Things: like, 1,000. Which isn't much of an improvement, really, but you'll only realize that if you actually stop and think about it (which you don't).

Anyway, class 1A is filled with ambient chatter that helps to pull you out of your brain funk enough to shuffle into your seat behind Midoriya. You almost don't have enough presence of mind to notice the way Midorya looks—awful, like an extra from a crappy zombie movie—but the heavy dark circles and furrowed brow are glaringly obvious, no matter how much Midorya protests about how "fine" he is. He's a really bad liar, which might be endearing if you weren't two seconds away from having a whisper-argument.

Before you can lay into him though, something lands on your desk. It startles you, badly, and you almost fall out of your chair before a hand steadies you and you seat.

"Sorry, [l/n]-chan, " Tsuyu says, a little guilty. "I didn't mean to startle you. I just wanted to give you back your jacket."

And, oh, would you look at that, that is your gym uniform jacket laying unobtrusively on your desk, and not something potentially dangerous and deadly.

"Oh it's okay," you tell her absently, because you're still not clear on why she had it in the first place, and—

Oh yeah, the sports festival. Kind of got overshadowed by the terrorist attack.