*Slam*
"Meet me at the usual place later. We need to talk." Said Saten with a serious expression on her face as slammed her hands on my desk. She then walks back to her seat under the murmurs and hushed whispers of the rest of the class.
I just sat down on my seat and was currently waiting for first period to start before she said that. But at least it was a very impressional way to begin my day. Seeing someone who usually has a silly smile suddenly make a serious face can be surprising.
Uiharu looked a bit tense when Saten went to my seat. She might know something about what Saten wanted to talk about. Perhaps they might have followed me back that night and saw that and now want some sort of explanation. If they did, I most likely didn't notice them because the emotions from the ushi-oni made me sick.
Despite saying that they want to investigate the neighbouring districts the day after, they instead avoided me during the whole day yesterday. They probably thought long and hard about whether or not confront me about it what happened.
'What should I do?...'
Spacing out and doing my best to ignore the gazes if my classmates, I patiently wait for the arrival of the teacher.
'This is gonna be a long day...' I sigh as my mind slowly delved deeper in its thoughts.
~~~~~~~~~~~
It would be a lie if I said that I didn't enjoy having friends and hanging out with someone. Even if I spend a lot of my time alone, just being in the presence of other people watching them interact with each other feels nice.
I'm sure Sekibanki feels the same way whenever she goes out with Kagerou and Wakasagihime. Outside the somewhat cold exterior lies a person who genuinely enjoys company.
When I was just transported to this time period, I had a really hard time just going about my day. Worrying about the next meal, where to go, not trusting other people...
Meeting the people from the anime of [BNHA] granted me with great relief, Because I know they can be trusted... I because I know these people... Because I know these characters.
Protagonists in a fanfiction only acknowledging the characters that appeared in the canon of a series or a franchise... I remember someone from my previous life calling it 'The Named Character Syndrome.'
I understand that fanfictions are made so the OC's interact more with the 'Named Characters' but if you think about it, someone is sent to another world and they immediately get some sort of tunnel vision?
Looking back on it, I was in the exact same situation as them. I treated everything around me the way a fan would visit anime locations like a pilgrimage. I would view them from behind the 4th wall despite being inside of it.
The world isn't a show. These people aren't characters. This is reality. Quirks, magic, advanced technology... Everything was so surreal that I kept forgetting that simple fact.
When Sekibanki treated me as her little brother, When Chiyo treated me like her own grandson, When these three treated me as a friend... What did I think of them; As characters? Or as living, breathing, people?
There might have been plenty of moments when my feelings were genuine, but for the most part?... Thinking of that, I felt guilty.
To them, I am an irreplaceable individual that they connect with. And yet, I was acting like a fan, getting close to them and awaiting the next event so I can watch it play out.
Who am I, really?
The human who pushed everything away to willingly embrace his fantasy?
Or the Rokurokubi who suddenly found himself thrust into a dangerous world of wonder and whimsy?
I felt that the answer was obvious. That's why, before I went to the usual place after school, I have invited Haru to go with me.
These people are my friends... And I have decided to open up a little more, one step at a time.
~~~~~~~~~
At a family restaurant, all four of us are seated on table located in a quiet corner of the place.
Uiharu and Saten are sitting together in front of us while Me and Haru are sitting on the otherside.
I feel really nervous at the moment but my face still remained stoic. The silence between us is almost deafening if not for the occasional crackling of the ice in our drinks
"Sooo..." Started Haru who visibly uncomfortable with the weird atmosphere. "...What's this about?"
I take a deep breath and explained from the beginning. From the talk between us last Friday, the exploration, the fight...
"That all happened while I was out?!" He said in shock. "I can't believe I missed out on the cool stuff!!"
"But that's besides the point." Saten interjected. "Can you tell us more about that thing?!" She said with stars in her eyes as Uiharu gives me a wry smile.
Staring at her in disbelief, I asked. "...You're not afraid?"
"Of course I am! But also curious! And worried!!" She exclaimed, standing up from her seat and leaning closer to me over the table. "I mean, why are you doing that or since when?!"
'Right, she's like that.' I chuckled inwardly. 'Ignorance is bliss, as they say, but... A little is fine for now.'
I wasn't ready to tell them the entire truth but informing them about a very small fraction of it doesn't sound too bad.
So I only told them that those creatures pop out from time to time, presumably from some shady underground laboratory. Lied saying that perhaps someone decided to recreate monsters from fiction or a genetic manipulation gone wrong. It wouldn't be too suspicious since Academy City has it's fair share of illegal activity. And that I've only been doing for a few months now.
"You still haven't answered the other question: Why you?" Said Haru.
"Someone has to." I shrug. "If I'm there and I can handle it, they why not?"
"Surely Anti-skill would move if you reported it." Said Uiharu as she paused from the parfait she ordered.
"Already did." I casually lied. "Maybe some bigwig is running the whole thing, or they're already on the case or something."
'This might lower their image of Anti-skill and the government, but they also need to know about the darker side of things sooner or later so they can grow up a bit. With the way the world is, there's no telling whether some disaster is gonna happen.'
"Stuff like this has been happening right under our noses, huh?" Said Haru. "If that's the case, I wonder how many more skeletons those higher-ups have hiding in their closets."
"Who knows..." I replied before taking a sip of my drink.
"Then does this mean that some of the urban legends going around have some amount of truth to them?" Saten said as she showed us her phone screen displaying a website dedicated to urban legends found in Academy City.
"Urban legends in Academy City? Quite a straightforward name..." Said Uiharu as she looked at it. (A.N: It's canon.)
"Then again, don't all rumors and urban legends have some truth behind them? Like that one case about a bed that gives anyone nightmares when they sleep on it, but it turns out that the neighbour in the other room was the culprit because they hated the loud noises coming from the occupant." I said while looking over at the phone screen, narrowing my eyes to scrutinize the titles. Haru suppressed his giggles from the implications of my comment.
'Some of these are just ridiculous... More of a joke than the actual thing, no chance of forming... Although I might have to tip the other threads over to Hii-chan's group.'
"So, hey... I was wondering if we can tag along next time or something. Y'know, help you out and stuff." Said Saten as she fiddles with her finders. "And it'd be pretty cool." She muttered under her breath.
"It might probably be the closest thing to hero work for civilians like us." Said Haru as he grins, the plants roots visibility crawling under his skin in excitement. "I'm in." He declared.
Uiharu glanced over in my direction as if to worriedly say: 'What now?'
"Those things pop up randomly, remember? Not like I have some radar to locate them." I told them a half-truth.
"Then how did you find the spider monster from last time" Saten points out. "You acting pretty suspicious back then so I thought you do have some way to find them."
"Back then was a coincidence." I defended myself, inwardly nervous. "The reason I looked suspicious was because I wanted to beat up some more thugs who tried to follow us that night." 'Nice save, me! Now to change the topic!'
"Anyways, I'll allow you guys to tag along if you get strong enough to fight back. Under my supervision, of course. After all, I don't see anything wrong in getting stronger."
In the anime, Saten was athletic enough to take out security bots with a swing of a baseball bat so she can be a vanguard figure. Uiharu can wield long range weapons like a gun so she can be a rearguard along with her support as a computer expert.
But Haru is gonna need some work. Maybe a mid-guard who uses vines or poison. Thoughts for later.
*Vrrrrrrrrr... Vrrrrrrrrr...*
Just then, Uiharu phone vibrated. She took it out, noticed it was a call and picked it up.
"Where are the two of you? You're both late!" Kuroko's voice was heard over her phone, along with other voices and sound in the background. "There's been an accident in XXXXXXXX and multiple branches are working together! Get over here, now!"
She looked over at me and I nodded at her.
"Sorry guys, gotta go!" "We'll talk again later!" We said to our two other companions as we hurriedly paid for our bill and made our way to the location.
Since we were in a hurry, I carried Uiharu as we flew on my heads. When we arrived on the scene, we notice that a bus crashed through a wall and into a mall. A fire was already eating away at some of it's parts as some people crowded over at a distance near the place to catch a glimpse of the wreckage.
"There! Shirai-san and Konori-senpai!" Uiharu pointed me over to our two coworkers.
I dropped both of us over to Kuroko and Konori, who was applying first aid to the wounded.
"What's the situation?" I asked as my removed head floated over to them while my body sent out dark healing Smoke, covering a larger area.
Seeing that I took over the treatment of the injured, primarily those who are in critical condition --Much to the suprise of the people, both the victims and the members of the other branches.-- Kuroko teleported away, presumably to look for other survivors.
"Nothing concrete, but it's assumed to either be a villain attack or another case of accidental quirk awakening." She said. "Shuzenji, stay here and tend to the wounded. Uiharu, come with over to help take out more victims." "Hai!"
As the two of them left, I turned my attention back to the people in front of me. Even if I am dextrous with my mouth, doing fine medical work using it is simply impossible.
I worked together with other people that know basic first aid. My smoke was able to keep the ones in critical condition stable as I manually work on them one by one. This kept going until the emergency response team arrived and lessened the burden.
Kuroko kept teleporting back with more injured as Konori help locating them with her quirk. Uiharu along with others of Judgment would then help dig them out. I could have helped in locating them but that would leave me incapable of saving those on the brink of death.
Conducting surgery in the middle of an accident is harder than you think, especially with multiple distractions and occasional explosions from what I assume to come from either leaked gas or the mall's power grid. Dividing my attention to both my patients and multiple heads using wide-scale empathy scan would have been fatal. Therefore I made a hard decision to focus on alleviating potential casualties rather looking for more people myself.
When half an hour has pass and some of the victims are already sent to hospital for further screening, Anti-skill arrived and started making a blockage around the area and persuading people to leave, both Judgement and victims alike.
This raised questions in the minds of nearby Judgment members. Some of them from another branch even went and questioned one who was guarding the perimeter. From the looks of it, the Judgment member was getting frustrated and the talk wasn't look good.
Other people from Judgment also went to other Anti-skill personnel to question them, including Konori-senpai which means that there would be no more patients coming my way.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We found ourselves back at the office as Anti-skill took over the site.
It was then that Konori-senpai told us of the information she was given by Anti-skill, or lack thereof. It was disappointing, but they took over everything on site and said it was classified information.
Of course, not just Konori-senpai but also other members of Judgment weren't satisfied with that answer. When pressed further, the man just said that he didn't know anything more about it either and was just following orders.
The office that night is colder the usual, and it certainly wasn't the work of the AC.