From Ashes to Flames [BNHA]

Look back

"The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace." (The Awakening by Kate Chopin)

She moved silently through the halls, her pale fragile limbs practically gliding her ethereal form like a ghost of a middle school suicide victim. She moved silently as she sat in her seat in the front of her classroom, extremely early so she was the only one there so she could read, her pale grey hair lightly brushing the seat of her chair with its length. Her ruddy brownish red eyes, like the color of dried blood she had been told, scanned over the stanzas of poetry while all the emotion the words stirred up in her stayed below a calm surface graced only with a permanent small smile, as though it had been carved there.

Her sleeve rode up as it caught on the edge of the desk, revealing bandages and scars from rougher nights and even worse afternoons. She quickly righted the shirt sleeve and sweater that had been on top of it before returning her attention to the book in front of her, poetry of the sea. She held an intelligent air around her even though as the other kids entered they acted as if she truly was the ghost of the halls, longing to be a student again but as invisible as air. Suddenly the book was torn from her grasp as a girl from her class looked down at her with a smug look. The girl's bob length turquoise hair swayed as she took as step back from the ghost's desk, a taunting look in her eyes as she kept the book held high.

The gray haired girl's carved smile didn't falter, though her eyes looked darker and tired, highlighting the large bags under her eyes that discolored her deathly pale skin. "What Homura? Not gonna come after one of your precious books?!"

A few other girls approached to join in on the bullying, though they would never receive the reaction they wanted from the girl who still sat calmly with perfect posture. " I'm afraid not, Miss Shunji. I hurt my knee on my way to school this morning and don't want to jump around on it too much. You should give the book a read through, it's quite sophisticated like a young lady like yourself is."

It wasn't a lie, Homura had hurt her knee after walking home in the dark the night before, tripping over a railing she hadn't cared to see in her blearing tiredness before falling at least fifteen feet onto the sand of a junkpile of a beach. She was technically sore all over, but she felt that detail wasn't all that necessary since she knew the girl in front of her didn't care about a word she said. "Like I'd read your useless nerd garbage."

The girl tossed the book halfheartedly, it landing on the windowsill of an open classroom window before teetering and falling off the ledge causing the other girls to laugh. With that, and a little shove from Shunji as she walked by, the bullying was over with still enough time to grab her book before the beginning of homeroom. Homura hauled herself up, though despite her pain her movements were completely graceful. She took her bag with her, not risking her books being thrown into the pond again, before setting slowly down the stairs with her knee that was clearly wrapped in bandages and a compression brace for the pain.

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The end of the day had rolled around, though the morning incident had been the first of many, there was a practice after school that most of her bullies had to attend so she was able to breathe a sigh of relief from her continuously upturned lips. She stood in the empty classroom from her desk, a bit shaky as the pain of her knee came in a flash. Homura shook it off within seconds, as though she was used to constant pain, and moved to visit the classroom next door. There she heard yelling and as she was about to reach the door, a blonde boy and his two lackeys came out of the classroom. She recognized Bakugo Katsuki well, they had gone to school with each other since elementary levels, but they never had a real conversation even when he had been bearable to be around.

His glare leveled on the ghost of a girl, already having been in a bad mood because of particular curly haired student. "Well would you look at that, the other quirkless smartass makes an appearance as well! What the fuck are you grinning about, huh?! You little fucking creep!"

She didn't respond, her eyes leveled to look right at his neck, not his face, though the small smile still didn't dissipate. "Whatever. Maybe you should join Deku and jump off the fucking roof you damn ghost."

He passed her, one of his lackeys grinning as he was able to brush past the girl who in all senses was undeniably attractive despite those pesky bags under her eyes. She turned into the classroom, seeing the only person she ever shared any real words with looking out the window with tears rolling down his face. "Izuku..."

"Wha-oh, hi Akai. Sorry, I have to run down and get my notebook." He threw on a hurried smile as he ran to grab his things. As he went to run past her, she grabbed his arm lightly which gained his attention as he knew Akai always avoided physical contact with others, even him.

"Izuku. I want to say one last thing to you.."He nodded in confusion for her to continue. "No matter what, I'm going to bet everything I have that you can become a hero. Not because I'm rooting for someone who's Quirkless or because I pity you, but because I know you. You have a hero's heart Izuku, and that's something no one can ever replicate, no matter how much power they have. I want you to remember I'm rooting for you while you move forward, alright?"

Izuku's eyes were watering. Akai was always polite and kind, though they got along he could tell that she only listened and watched heroes because he wanted to, more than anything the big difference between them was that it was clear that Akai had given up on having dreams a long time ago. Though she always ranked first in grades, it was clear that's all she had to devote her life to because she simply enjoyed the reading that came with being intelligent. Now that hopeless girl, with dead eyes that seemed like a ghost lurking on the other side, had a kinder smile than he had ever seen on her perfectly sculpted face with a glisten in her eyes that made them almost red, almost. "Th-Thank you, Akai. I don't really know what-"

He was cut off as the ethereal girl hugged him, her warmth and the feeling of her skinny body close to his was proof to him that she was real, the realest she had ever seemed in all the years he had known her where she looked like she could drift away on a cloud of thought at any time. "I know, so go get your notebook and I'll see you later, Izuku."

With that she turned away and casually walked down the hall, in the opposite direction of the exit.

What Izuku remembers the most about that day was no longer the bullying or other events to follow, no what he remembers that shakes him to his core was the fact that Akai...

..never looked back at him again after she walked away that day.