Truth Time

The Fall School Festival was… actually going pretty well.

Even Sakura and the rest of the daycare came to cheer them on, and Nagisa felt so encouraged and proud by it. Boosted in both energy and courage. Sure, A Class was most likely in the lead, and by Itona's reports, that was most certainly true, but Nagisa was confident that their restaurant had more heart and genuine love than any communist setup Asano and his gang of rodents had down there.

And what's more, Nakamura apologized to him for constantly teasing him about his more… feminine looks. Maybe before he might have taken a bit longer to consider her apology, think harder over the fact that yeah, it did hurt sometimes, and once I even had a breakdown in the bathroom, so thanks! But… That whole talk with Korosensei, his standing up to his mother and stun-clapping that assassin in front of her… He felt different. More confident in himself, and happier with himself. Not quite self-love levels yet, but… there was peace.

Looking out the window, he noticed a familiar figure approaching their little outside restaurant with curiosity written on his face.

Oh.

Oh.

It was that brainwashing guy from the island!

"It's you!" Nagisa heard himself say and the purple haired boy turned his attention to him, recognition flashing in his tired eyes and he smirked, walking up to the window with his hands in his pockets.

"Oh, hey. Nagisa, right?" the boy—he remembered his name was… Shinsou, he believes—smirked in greeting. He must have dry humor. "I didn't know you came here."

Nakamura leaned out, raising her eyebrow. "You know each other?"

"Ah, yeah," Nagisa chuckled somewhat nervously but passed it off as a cute giggle. "He's from the Vacation Island," he explained to the blonde. "Shinsou, was it? This is Nakamura. Ah... our school is competing for… stuff, and… stuff. Uh—wh- ehem, uh, what're you doing here?"

Shinsou nodded as though he understood perfectly. "Stuff and stuff, huh? Sounds serious. I heard people from my school talking about some rare foods from a student-run restaurant up on the mountain." He shrugged. "Got curious. So here I am."

Nagisa smiled after nodding. "That's great! Well, we have a large assortment of… of, ah…" he zoned out as his gaze caught the waving hand of… another… familiar face. His sentence broke off into dumb babbling as Yuji ran toward them, shouting his name and looking like a genuine tourist. Oh, crap. Crap. Crap. Crap on a STICK. Please no. No nononono anyone but him, PLEASE, GOD, ANYONE BUT HIM.

Shinsou turned when he noticed Nagisa's eyes on something behind him, his own face turning sour when he too recognized Yuji. "Oh, geez. Has this guy been bothering you since Summer Vacation?"

"N-no, not at all actually," he felt truthful saying that but his insides felt like they were slowly wilting into dust. A hand pressed on his face and dragged his cheeks down in a suppressed groan. "Not Yuji, anyone but Yuji… Gah…"

"Yuji?" Nakamura blinked at the raven approaching before she smirked and realization dazzled in her eyes, followed my mischief. He did not trust that look. "Ohhh, he's that dude from Summer Vacation! The guy who thought you were a chic and totally had a thing for you."

Nagisa had the very sudden urge to force an Anti-sensei knife down Nakamura's throat just to shut her up, but alas, this was his character development arc in his life, that was behind him, wasn't it?? Instead, he tried his best to compose himself (it didn't work, he looked like a frazzled mess) as he greeted Yuji, holding onto the windowsill as he leaned over.

"Heyyy!"

"How- how'd you know what school I went to?"

"It was easy, I just looked up your name from the Island's Guest Registry," he answered like it was the easiest freaking pill to swallow. His smiled turned sheepish as he admitted, "I've kinda been stalking you online, and I saw the big Autumn Festival so I decided to come see what you had to offer!"

Nagisa's head was spinning, there were so many things happening, and why were his legs suddenly feeling cold and—"HEY, NAKAMURA?! What're you— Stop!"

Oh. Oh god. She changed his pants into a skirt. In front of two boys. And yet neither gave any notion that they actually saw. What the hell.

Nakamura laughed, playing with a new bundle of yarn and fabric from his pants. RIP, his pants. "Okay, last time."

"DIDN'T WE JUST HAVE A CONVERSATION ABOUT THIS?!"

She leaned in, a cheeky grin on her stupid face as she whispered, "Hey, aren't they loaded? Let's drain them for all they've got, see?"

"Both of them?!" Nagisa whispered back incredulously. "I can't do that to Shinsou—"

"But you can to this Yuji guy, right?" Nakamura's eyes gave an evil glint as she grinned. She almost looked like those foxes from folk stories. Trickster little things. "Come on, don't be shy! We have to raise our customer average anyway we can, right?"

Nagisa glanced away, if only to keep himself from flicking her between the eyes and he gave a strained sigh and the blonde maneuvered the snake-haired boy toward the window facing the boys, where Nagisa realized Shinsou was currently giving Yuji the stink-eye, a gesture in his stance completely untrusting toward him. Yuji's joyous smile from before had now morphed into something very strained and fearful, and his posture was stiff as he looked desperate to ignore the purple-haired boy's killer glare.

Then he was kicked out of the window. Literally. "Take one for the team, Nagisa! Our fate as an enterprise lies on your skills as a hostess!"

"HEY!" The crossdressed boy nearly fell on his face if it weren't for Shinsou and Yuji both catching him as he fell. His legs… felt so cold. This was such a mess. The boys helped him to stand up, asking him if she was alright and all that chivalrous crap. Still, he plastered a sweet smile on his face. "Ah, um, thanks… you two."

Nakamura came out from their shack of a school building and zipped straight to Shinsou, wrapping her arms around his and charming him with her smile. "Hey, there, hero! I saw how you helped Nagisa this Summer; that was super brave of you. Let's sit you down over here, yeah?"

Nagisa sighed as he watched her drag his only chance at getting away from Yuji toward the furthest table in the outdoor restaurant. He turned to Yuji. Oh, gosh, he has that stupid grin on his face, ugh, this is so STUPID!!!! AN OFFENSE TO ALL REPTILIANS. Absolutely disgusting. Okay, well he smiled back again, albeit extremely strained and looking about ready to bite someone. "Okay, w-well, ah, let's… let's find you somewhere to sit, now, huh?"

And so he stuck the stalker behind a bush to eat. Because a bush had more dignity than Nagisa had at this point in time. Whatever, it was private and secluded where no one would see the- oh god, it was private and secluded where no one would see them. Nagisa held his hand so he wouldn't slap himself in front of the cringey dork in front of him as he ate.

---

"I'd rather have a table closer to those two," Shinsou tried telling Nakamura, gesturing to Nagisa and that creep Yuji.

The blonde waved him off as she pushed him down to sit. "Don't you worry, they'll be fine! Nagisa's a tough cookie, you know. He knows how to fight, you know."

Shinsou narrowed his eyes.

"'He'?"

Nakamura paused, her face growing staunch in surprise before laughing and stammering over an excuse. "Ah! S-sorry, Japanese isn't my first language; Did I get the pronouns wrong? I meant, ah… what's the word…"

The purple-haired boy kept his gaze hard on her. She was lying, but where? Surely Nagisa was a girl—unless she was transitioning…? Which was fair enough, but why act all jittery about it?

"'She'?"

"Ah! 'She'! Yes, you're right! Thank you so much!"

He watched her for a moment more, not trusting this scenario at all, before he stood up. "Alright, what's the truth?"

"Wha-"

Bingo.

Her gaze went flat and blank and he smirked, taking her hand and leading her toward where the two had gone before. A redhead with horns sat behind a bush with a giant notepad—but he looked frustrated and… frozen. In a strange position that was definitely not natural.

"Dammit, why'd I look at his eyes," he muttered with clenched teeth that seemed to clatter as he spoke. Then he spotted Shinsou and Nakamura and his expression in his eyes grew more troubled. "It just keeps getting worse and worse."

Then a man carrying a gun and a dead bird came out from the forest, approached another member of the staff. What. He heard cries of shock coming from the other side of the bush.

The redhead scoffed. "Oh, it would. Go figure. Hey, you! Purple, care to give me a hand? That dude's called Mr. Yoshioka from the local hunt club, but idiot back there's freaking out and Nagisa's helpless by herself."

Wow. Mega sketch. But at least he was straightforward about it, so he complied and snapped Nakamura out from his quirk and knelt down to help the strange horned kid, following instructions to write out cue cards, then display them for "Nervous Nagisa," ignoring the bewildered questioning from the blonde he previously had under his spell.

Things slowly started to not add up—not that it wasn't before, but you can't exactly play tetris with so many holes in the foundation before hitting the top and flunking out. Shinsou listened to how Nagisa floundered over herself—himself? Nakamura took over the writing on the notepad, getting rather clever with how Nagisa should answer. That's when he started to really take note of the strange people at the outside cafe.

Men with guns, talking about poisons, vile subjects, but still happily eating away at the food. "Comedy skits," Nagisa titled their behavior. Oh, so the gun that dude was sucking on was just a prop, then, huh? What sort of junior high school class invites such shady people around?

Then, Yuji spoke up with a serious tone. Shinsou didn't know he could make that sound.

"I know a front when I see one. I can spot a phony a mile away. That girl I met at the island this summer? Let's just say a fake smile doesn't suit her," he had said. "You don't have to keep lying."

Silence.

Then Nagisa. "That's some talent, Yuji."

"If you can call it that."

"A quirk then? ...Nevermind. Look, I'm sorry I lied to you. It's not your fault. I've pretty much looked like this since I was a little boy. It's kind of a pain."

Shinsou blinked.

"Little boy…?"

Nagisa continued. "Lately, I've learned that even a talent you're ashamed of can be a source of confidence if you can use it to help someone else. So I'm starting to make peace will how girly I look."

Shinsou's brows curved together. He felt something in him shake when he heard that.

"I'm a guy is what I'm trying to say."

Ah.

Now, that makes sense.

Whatever came next sounded like buzzing to his ears, nonsensical sounds while the redhead beside him started to shake less and less and become more mobile while the blonde girl had a knowing smile—something of pride as she listened in. His ears caught up something else though.

"From the right angle," Nagisa spoke. "Our flaws can be weapons. If I've learned nothing else from this classroom, it's that. It's what we do. It's how this cafe came together. It's what brought everyone here today, what made us a part of so many people's lives."

It was silent again.

Then Yuji got up, and left.

Shinsou couldn't help but wonder if that was a good thing or not.

---

"So you're actually a guy, huh?"

Nagisa looked about ready to explode from embarrassment when he whipped around to see Shinsou. "You- You knew?!"

Shinsou shrugged. "You weren't exactly quiet behind those bushes. Not like I care either way, though."

The blue-haired girl- no, boy seemed to relax a bit at that.

"You said something though," Shinsou picked back up again. "'A talent you're ashamed of could be used to help someone else.'"

Nagisa was quiet, carefully studying the boy.

"All my life, people titled my quirk 'villainous'. Brainwash. So villainous, huh?" A dry laugh. "But… it's something I was gifted, wasn't it? A quirk, a talent. I was- no, still am, ashamed of it and how people viewed it, but it's our flaws that can be used as weapons to help others, right?"

"Uh—Yeah!"

Shinsou grinned. "I wasn't sure if I should apply to a hero course or not next year, apprehensive over my quirk and all. But… now, I think I know what I want to do."

"Did I help you with that?"

Shinsou was quiet for a moment before he nodded. "Yeah. I think you did. Thank you."

"I'm- I'm glad I could help, Shinsou."

"And Nagisa." The boy met his gaze, curious and nervous. "Let's just work to stay true to ourselves."

Nagisa smiled, then nodded.