Inside Your Mind

22 - Shinsou

Oh, I'm getting used to walking on a thin line

Kaori Shinsou was at a loss when she saw the scene that Aizawa and her stumbled upon. It looked almost peaceful, the way a police officer was tending to the wounds of one young guy with curly hair. The way two other young men were just standing there, one of them with a rope in his hand, the other holding his arm.

Kaori remembered the three of them from Professor Aizawa's class. Well, it wasn't really his class, he was just the programme coordinator, which meant he was responsible for everything they did, but he didn't actually teach them.

"What is going on here?" Aizawa asked them. Kaori saw an assortment of knives on the ground. There was a person tied up with some old (and really dingy looking) rope. There was blood dripping from one of the students' arms. He was a tall guy with short, straight black hair. He was wearing glasses and looked incredibly embarrassed. Kaori couldn't really figure out why, though.

Next to him was Todoroki, that kid with the burn mark. Kaori knew him, because he was Enji Todoroki's son and Enji Todoroki was kind of a big deal (albeit a controversial big deal). He was holding the rope connected to someone in tattered clothes, a bandana around his head. It looked like he was unconscious.

"My God..." Kaori breathed when she realized who that was. The knives, the dark side alley, that one Hosu officer that everyone knew about because he kept stealing drugs from evidence bags...

"We got Stain..." the third student mumbled, his voice sounding tired and exhausted. It was the guy with the curly hair... his name was pretty unusual, too, Kaori tried to remember what it was again.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, Midoriya? I leave you alone for a few days only and you go and get yourselves in danger like that, without properly alerting any authorities. Do you all know what could have happened to you? Anything could have happened to you!" Aizawa suddenly started rambling, walking over to Midoriya first, giving him an angry glare and - once he saw that there was nothing he could do - moving on to the other two. There were very few times that Kaori had seen him this angry before. Aizawa usually couldn't be bothered to get angry.

"Where the fuck did you even get that rope?" he asked Todoroki and the other guy. Kaori walked over to him. She was curious to get a look at Stain. Plus, the third student's arm did look pretty bad.

"You can find anything at a trash collection site, Professor." was all Todoroki said with a shrug. Aizawa looked like he was about to smack him for that smartass comment. Kaori had to appreciate the ingenuity of the idea, however.

"Hey, is your arm okay?" she asked the other student. When he looked at her, he reminded her of someone, but she couldn't put her finger on it.

"No." he replied. It was really not the answer that Kaori had expected and it kind of threw off her groove at that point.

"Uh... can I have a look at it?" she wanted to know, once she had gotten over how blunt that answer was. Of course, his arm wasn't okay, but she didn't expect him to actually say it. She waited for him to take his hand away from the wound, while Aizawa was giving out to his students in the background.

It felt almost relaxing to Kaori to hear him rambling on like that, even though she wasn't really listening. It felt like a strangely grounding experience after this whole crazy night. That was, if that night was even over yet. Kaori sure hoped it was, because she had no idea how much more her sleep-deprived brain could process.

"Shit, that looks pretty bad..." Kaori mumbled, as she examined the students' arm. It was a really deep cut and judging from the little puddle of blood on the ground and from how pale he was, this student had lost a good bit of blood already. There wasn't much she could do right now, however. Except one thing. With a sigh she took off her new uniform jacket and started tying it tightly around the wound.