Why Would It Be Different

Muted

When I wake up I blink a few times and see Eri standing over me. "Shinsou wake up please." I sit up and she hugs me and I flinch from the pain. Why does my mouth hurt so much? Eri starts crying and hugging me tightly "I'm so sorry Shin." I reach up and tough my mouth and feel some kind of string that is going...through my skin?!?

I use my phone and look and see some kind of string that is sewn through my lips and keeping my mouth shut. There's blood running down from my lips. I cant speak... I start crying and Eri hugs me tighter.

Chisaki walks in and throws a black face mask at me "Wear this to school." He leaves and I stumble upstairs and Eri and I repeat the process from yesterday and we wrap my torso and clean the new marks covering my body.

Eri leaves and I lay down for another sleepless night. Suddenly I hear a knock at the door and I sit up straight afraid it's Chisaki. The door opens and instead Eri walks in with her favorite stuffed animal. "Hey Shinsou can I sleep with you?" She looks scared so I nod and she comes over. I lay back down against the wall so she has room and she lays down next to me with her head to my chest. "Goodnight Shinsou." I pull the blanket over her and wait until she nods off.

The next morning I lay there looking at the time. Eventually I realize I have to get ready for school so I move Eri slightly to the side. My mouth and torso hurt like hell but I just deal with it. I change into my school uniform and when I come out of the bathroom after getting ready I see Eri sitting on my bed and rubbing her eyes.

"Good morning Shinsou"' I wave to her and she gives me a sad look and looks like she's going to cry again and she runs over and wraps her arms around my waist. "I'm so sorry." I take a slip of paper and write on it. It isn't your fault. I hug her tightly. She stops crying and I stand up and pack my bag and get ready to leave for school.

I put on the black face mask and head to school. On the way there I ran into Denki. HE sees me and is about to say something but instead I sprint ahead of him. "Shin wait!" I run all the way to school and Denki is still chasing me so I duck into a classroom and he runs past me.

After he's gone I continue my school day as usual and luckily nobody tries to talk to me and I have no classes with Denki today except for training.

Once the end of the day rolls around I debate just running and skipping class but decide I might as well just go and get it over with. I walk into the classroom and the whole class runs up to me but Deku is in front "Shinsou your quirk was amazing yesterday, why didn't you tell us?" The rest of them ask similar questions as well as compliments but I just ignore them and push to my seat.

Once I sit down I feel eyes on me but ignore it and class starts. I can still feel Denki's eyes on me but refuse to look at him. Mr. Aizawa also gives me a worried glance but I pretend I didn't see it.

Training starts and we all get changed and leave. My mask is still on and I get some weird looks but I pretend nothing is out of the ordinary. Today is an individual improvement day so we get to work alone and work on improving our quirks.

I walk to the corner of the training room and begin to work on my physical strength. I'm in the middle of curl ups when Denki appears above me and looks down at me. I sit up and he sticks his hand out and I take it, standing.

"Shin can you please take off the mask I already know." Actually you don't. I back away from him and he grabs me again but this time I'm quicker and grab his arm and use my weight to flip him over my back and he lands on his back.

I start to speed walk away from him and hurry to the bathroom. I sit there crying and wishing I could be stronger to face Chisaki and save Eri. Why can't you protect the ones you care about? I hear footsteps and quickly wipe my tears. "Shin?" Oh shit he found me. I stay quiet (because what else is he going to do?) "Shin please come out."

I decide there's no way out of this so I open the stall door and walk out. To my surprise Aizawa is also there. Denki comes up and hugs me and I stumble backwards from the force. "Please don't run away from us again." I look at the floor in shame and realize that even if I want to use my quirk to get away I can't. "Shin please take off the mask." I shake my head and dodge his hand so he can't grab it.

I feel Aizawa's scarf wrap around me and before I can react I'm trapped and Denki is coming closer. Aizawas scarf is tight around my injuries and I feel tears spring to my eyes and release a muffled cry of pain. His eyes widen and the scarf loosens but before I can run, Denki tears off the mask. I try to grab it but he keeps it away. Both Denki and Aizawas eyes widen in horror as they look at my muted mouth.

I cover my mouth with my hand and try to run but fall from the pain in my torso after Aizawa made it worse. I slowly stand up with tears streaming down my face and I feel two sets of arms wrap around me but I pull away from both of them and hold my torso in pain. Aizawa is the first to understand and he scoops me up and runs to recovery girls office yelling for people to move out of his way.

(1061 words)