"honesty and grace" (Mezo Shoji X Reader)

Chapter 20

A few days after the unintentional movie night, Shoji found himself lying awake in his bed. It was past midnight, now being Thursday morning. The boy had been raking through his mind, tossing and turning in the process. He didn't know exactly what he was searching for, but he could feel himself looking for something. A feeling grew warm in his chest, a tight feeling that made his thoughts pause. He was no stranger to frustration, but this seemed to be a whole different kind.

At this point, he believed that he was trying to connect the dots in his head. (F/n) echoed in the back of his mind constantly, making his face warm and his heartbeat quicken. Though, he wasn't all too focused on you. It was your father he was thinking about. When he had done a little more research out of curiosity, he stumbled across an informational video on the villian.

The man talked fast and used cute and simple animations to get his point across, and he was clearly American by the way he spoke and looked. "So, a lot of people wonder about the villains in today's society and why they act the way they do. This is a breakdown on a man named Jonathan (L/n), or otherwise known as the American villian Compact." The man leaned behind him to gesture to a chalkboard, looking at it as if he was already bored with his own rambling. "Compact started to make his presence very obvious about fifteen years before he was caught, and not a single person thought of him as suspicious. His wife and daughter were even taken by surprise when they were filmed being told in a police station that their loving father and husband was the most wanted villain in the country."

He had explained further about the man's history and crimes, but soon got to the part Shoji needed to know the most. "Now, along with being an absolute psychotic maniac, Compact also had a ridiculously strong quirk. To the world, it is known as solidification and compaction. Real original name he chose for himself, huh? Anyways, this allowed him to touch any living or nonliving thing and actually stop the atoms from moving within it, even if it were already a solid. If he were to do it to something small, like a plant, it would wither away at a much faster rate. However, he had a tendency to be malicious while harming heroes, and would frequently stop the atoms of a human being. This would result in the most painful death that anyone could possibly imagine." He turned to point to a human body diagram behind him, looking as though he was now interested. "The brain would shut down, your heart would stop, you wouldn't be able to breathe, your liver would fail, your kidneys would shrivel, and your bladder would become as hard as a rock. Any liquids in your body, including your own blood would cause you to turn into a meaty statue. He had the ability to turn off his quirk, but only did so to three people, none of which survived.

"So, I think what we learned from this is that besides being an absolute douche bag, Jonathan (L/n) was also a terrible father, along with a hypocritical villain." With that, he ended the video and Shoji was left dumbfounded.

The recollection of the video made him cringe. He knew what he wanted to do, but was nervous about possibly disturbing you. More than anything he wanted to hear your voice, even if it were just for a moment. His body rolls to the side, grabbing his phone from the floor. He had it plugged into an outlet, but the cord wasn't quite long enough for the device to rest on his blow up mattress. Removing the charger from its port, he turns again to lie on his stomach. His true set of arms hold the phone and allow himself to be propped up by his elbows. The remaining tentacles lay on his back in their normal forms.

"Are you awake?" He sends the message without thinking much of it, looking at the time in the corner of the screen. 1:21 in the morning. In his mind, he could already see himself drifting to sleep to the sound of Cementoss' voice while he lectures the class.

He could feel his phone vibrate in his hands, signaling for him to take a look at the notification. "Yeah, couldn't sleep." She had sent back, and he was surprised to know she was still up. Yes, he had wanted her to be, but it wasn't good for her to be awake so early just to have to go to work later in the morning. Another buzz caused him to focus back on his phone. "Call?"