Fight or Flight [BNHA x reader]

Harder than a rock

Watching Shinsou's battle shook you in a way you didn't know possible. It wasn't that he won or that he seemed like a bad person but whatever he did...scared you. When he and Mina exchanged a few words at the beginning of the match you thought nothing of it...at least until Mina shut down completely.

It was like a switch was flipped in her brain. One second she was bright and bubbly with that confident, warm smile and the next she was stiff as a board. Her face lost all expression and her eyes glazed over: lifeless. It was that same look you remembered seeing in your eyes each time you looked in the mirror as a child. That look was the same whenever your father used his quirk to 'calm' you.

You were up in the crowd but your keen bird-like eyesight allowed you to see her expression clearly. Your whole body stiffened as fear and panic gripped at your chest. You didn't understand, you couldn't figure out why Mina looked like that...how it happened.

Why...how...nonono, he's gone.

Your father wasn't there, he was dead you were sure of it but that fear that someone like him was here and capable of putting you and others you cared for into the state you once were forced in terrified you. You didn't want to go back...you didn't want anyone to be stuck like that either.

Your hands gripped the railing in front of you until the skin around your knuckles turned white. You narrowed your eyes, dulling your senses so you could focus solely on what was happening to Mina and how. You couldn't, wouldn't have a repeat of your life. You hated those eyes, you didn't want to see them again.

"Turn around and walk out of the ring." Without hesitating Mina did exactly as the lavender haired boy commanded, her face still devoid of life and her walk lacking its usual excited swagger. You were confused, hell, the entire crowd was just as baffled at how the girl just leftthe arena, not even putting up the slightest fight. It was weird and you wanted to know just what he said or did to make her so...blank and fight-less.

"Look at that! Class 1-A's Mina Ashido just walksout of the arena! I wonder what Shinsou could have said to make the energetic girl lose all of her fight so easily. Not the Most exciting match but...THE UNDERDOG FROM GENERAL STUDIES HITOSHI SHINSOU MOVES ONTO THE NEXT ROUND!" The crowd slowly began to clap and cheer for the resident underdog of the finals, confusion being replaced with a (slightly confused) excitement for the boy, most wondering about his quirk and if that was what got him to win.

As he walked off, Shinsou briefly glanced around feeling good about the lack of fear and disgust on people's faces before he whispered to Mina; a smirk on his lips. Her glossy eyes blinked back to life and she looked confused and unhappy as she was ushered from the arena.

You wished you were more skilled in reading lips when someone was speaking Japanese, then you'd be able to know what the purple haired boy had said to Mina to make her leave. You could do English well enough and Japanese barely acceptable but Shinsou was even harder than a native speaker because he enunciated his words just a bit different than the people you were used to learning from and speaking around.

Shinsou was fluent in Japanese as you were but he had the slightest accent from his mother being from the UK and him having learned English and Japanese as a child so that twinge from his childhood was sometimes apparent in the way he talked.

When the pink skinned girl joined your class in the stands, she was surrounded by classmates all eager to console the girl and find out what the hell happened. "Woah Mina, what happened girl? I thought you were so pumped to fight and make it to the finals?" Hagakure waved her gloved hands around for emphasis after releasing Mina from a hug.

"I was...it was so weird. One second I'm all ready to kick that scrawny jerks butt and the next I just felt...don't know...trapped? And then I was out of the ring and the boy was thanking me for my showcase of the true talent of 1-A or something like that." She slumped her shoulders and let out a slightly exaggerated whine. "Damn I was hoping to show off my mad skills, awe I looked like such a dope!"