59

Chapter 59: Confessions II - Crestfallen Truth SeekerNotes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Kyoka had just pressed the fifth floor's button as she heard Toru's voice yell a "Hold the doors!"

She quickly used the jack that wasn't connected to her music player to lash the air in front of her, triggering the elevator's photocell sensor and leaving the doors open for the invisible girl. Toru hopped in as a reproach for running indoors came from Ida, but the rocker clicked the doors closed to ignore the strict teen. The guy had to take a chill pill.

"Thanks! Owe you one," Toru giggled. Her breath was a bit short, but she sounded happy.

"What's the rush?" she asked, pausing the song she was listening to to give the other her undivided attention.

"Eheh, I was out working out with my Quirk in the sunlight, but I kinda lost track of time," Toru admitted as she stretched a bit.

"Still improving?"

"Always," Toru chuckled, her fists clenching energetically. "I think I've almost got it!"

"Got what?" Kyoka asked curiously.

"Revealing my face!" the other answered excitedly. "I'm so close, I can feel it! I can't wait to see how I look!"

The punkette smiled at her friend's enthusiasm. "Let us know when you do. I'm sure Mina will ask you to take an album's worth of photos or something."

"Ah! She so would."

"Or you could also use it to have some fun," Kyoka grinned, feeling somewhat mischievous, for a change. "Imagine posing as someone from another course, or just saying you got lost and wandered into U.A.; Ida would lose his marbles."

"Oh my god, that's going to be in my top five things to do when I get it!" Toru laughed.

As the elevator reached the top floor, the two walked out and in the same direction. Kyoka, instead of stopping by her room, walked forward, only to notice that Toru hadn't stopped by hers either. No, she was merrily skipping all the way to the end of the corridor.

She raised an eyebrow at Toru as they approached Momo's room, the invisible girl seeming—or sounding—completely at ease as she knocked twice on the greenish wood. The response soon came in the form of a "Yeah?" that definitely wasn't from the heiress' voice.

"It's us!" Toru piped up.

The door opened, revealing a happy Mina to invite them in. "Kept us waiting, didn't you?"

"Sorry, lost track of time," Toru apologized, making the other snort.

"Fine~ Come on in!" the pinkette gestured with her head.

Kyoka followed along after a moment, wondering if she had perhaps misunderstood or missed something—which was getting more and more likely, since there were another four unexpected girls in the room. What were they all doing here?

She looked to Momo in search of answers, but there was little to be found, as her nice smile didn't quite count as one. The others—Tsu, Ochaco, Toru, Mina, Setsuna, and Itsuka—were all looking either interested or giddy as they waved at her welcomingly.

"Hey Kyoka," Setsuna, resting on the bed with her head upside down, yawned, "you want in as well?"

Kyoka's brow furrowed. "Want in on what?"

"Uh, guess not," the lizard girl muttered.

"Kyoka doesn't currently know anything about this," Momo explained, interrupting the rocker from repeating her question. "I invited her here to see if she might be interested. I know that it might not be the optimal time to do so, but-"

"But we still have some time, yeah," Itsuka commented before patting an empty spot on the mattress. "Wanna sit?"

If it was going to let her get some answers on whatever this was…

"Fine," the punk sighed, obliging by sitting down on the heavenly soft bed. "Just explain what's going on. I feel like I'm the only one here who's out of the loop."

"Of course," Momo nodded politely. "You see…"

Kyoka had to fight with herself to keep a straight face throughout the whole explanation. Too many things were swirling around her head, making the task of understanding everything no small feat for her overly tired brain. There was just so fucking much to wrap her head around…

"Any questions?" Itsuka asked when the seemingly-eternal explanation was over.

"Gimme a sec," Kyoka grumbled, closing her eyes and raising a hand to ask for some peace and quiet.

She tried to organize her confused thoughts.

Her friends were trying to go for a relationship with Green, and a big one at that. Like, "never heard it in real life" kind of big, and she had heard a lot. Kyoka came from a family of musicians with all sorts of friends and acquaintances, and she knew her fair share about free love. Although she'd never had that conversation with her parents—Could you imagine the sheer embarrassment? She'd rather die—she was a curious girl with the internet at her disposal. She'd gone through a lot of self-searching—so, so fucking much—before telling her parents that she wanted to be a Hero, and her research hadn't been strictly related to her future profession.

At least some things didn't sound so farfetch'd. Of course, she already knew that four—now confirmed to be five, so all—of her female classmates had the hots for Green. Some were painfully obvious, some weren't. Momo and Mina were subtle enough, but had their moments of weakness—which Kyoka did try her best to ignore for her own sanity. Ochaco might just as well go around with a sign on her back. Tsuyu and Toru had an easier time hiding stuff from showing on their faces, but even in their cases, Kyoka had no doubts. Their heartbeats didn't lie, and her ears had been open for a month to the stuff happening around the green-haired teen.

Then she had to add two more to the list: cool-headed Prez Itsuka and always-smirking Dinogirl Setsuna. Kyoka hadn't paid as much attention to them during her investigation, but perhaps she should have. Itsuka was Green's counterpart in 1-B and practically the dorm's mom. Setsuna had stuck like glue to a number of the boy's activities, not to mention the time she spent with Eri. Things weren't quite as plain as with her classmates, but they made sense. Yeah, she could understand how that could have happened.

The whole circus to get here—which had been going on as long as her investigation, imagine that—seemed almost par for the course at this point. It wasn't a light subject to take on, after all. Some things may have been made unnecessarily complicated by their desire to keep everything hush hush, but at least that part had worked fine, since Kyoka didn't have the slightest idea of what was going on behind the scenes.

What she didn't quite get was why she had been invited as well. Did they really think that she was crushing on Green too? Why?

"Why'd you think that I'd want in?" was the first thing that came out of her mouth, her tone unnecessarily harsh. It was only missing a "the fuck" or a "the hell" as the cherry on top.

Momo, Mina, and Ochaco looked taken aback by her words, maybe even hurt, while Itsuka simply raised an eyebrow somewhat judgingly. Tsuyu, on the other hand, was as placid as always, ready to spit some truths if needed.

- Fuck, should have toned it down… Stop scowling dammit, - she ordered herself as she kneaded her face to reacquire a semblance of sociability.

"Sorry, that came out wrong," she quickly grunted. "I meant, um, what gave you that impression? I don't think I said anything about Green like you guys have…"

"But you did?" Ochaco interjected, sounding a bit confused. "Didn't you say that he looked cool during his matches?"

She had? Figures that she'd do something stupid like that during that dumb game and they wouldn't let her forget it.

"Ugh, it was probably my dumb way of trying not to be left out," she said as she shook her head.

"You also said you weren't convinced or something, so that checks out," Setsuna pointed out with a light shrug.

"You also said that he's nice," Mina teased with a grin that said "I don't forget stuff like that."

Kyoka kept herself from frowning, instead touching her jacks to make a point. "It's because of these. Green's the only one who tries to warn me when loud noises are about to happen, so that much is true. "

"Aww, nice and caring to boot," Mina commented, holding her head up on one palm as she swooned dramatically.

"If you say so." The punkette rolled her eyes, denying the actress of further gratification.

"It's not just that," Tsuyu chimed in, staring with those deep black eyes of hers. "I've noticed how you've been watching Midoriya for a while now, ribbit."

Kyoka tensed, but didn't interrupt as the frog girl continued. Had she messed up?

"You can pick up on his steps before he enters a room, because you always look at the door when he does, even if you're doing something else, and your eyes linger on him when he leaves, ribbit. You mostly dance around him, trying not to be too close to him, but not that far either. You've approached him often, be it for music, homework, or other small things, as if to find an excuse to stay, ribbit." She raised one of her long fingers to point at the punk's face. "And you're blushing a lot."

Yeah, Kyoka was blushing. It was more due to the shame of having been caught red-handed than anything else, but she couldn't deny that having everything listed out loud so precisely did paint a certain type of picture. Now, if only she could calm down and think rationally about it…

"Come on, there's nothing to be embarrassed about," Setsuna chuckled as her hands grabbed Ochaco and Toru, the two letting out a surprised short squeal. "We've all done that when we thought we wouldn't get caught. Toru takes her time to watch whenever his back is turned, and have you seen Ochaco in the gym?"

"Guilty as charged," the first girl in question intoned with a giggle while the brunette instantly turned as red as a tomato.

Tsu bowed lightly. "Sorry, ribbit, it wasn't to put you on the spot. Of course it's something we all share."

"It's fine. Doesn't hurt anybody," Itsuka commented in passing.

"I can't contest that," Momo sighed, palm on her cheek. "Though hearing it all in such a manner is slightly mortifying."

"Eh, Tsu's just that good," Mina stated with a shrug. "Got me, got you, got everybody figured out."

The frog girl ribbited happily.

Kyoka swallowed, feeling unsure as to what she wanted to say.

Denying her friend's words seemed like a lost cause. She knew that trying to lie to Tsu would be a waste of energy she didn't have. If Tsu had kept an eye on her even half as much as Kyoka had done with Green, she wouldn't be buying her excuses. Moreover, Momo had seen her staring like that just a few hours before, so it wasn't like she could refute that with a straight face or without being called on it.

So, Kyoka wasn't left with that many options. She would admit something that she hadn't really thought about until that point—and oh boy, she didn't even want to think about the implications of what having a double unrequited crush would do to her, as if things weren't already bad enough with one—but, at the same time, she would try to learn if Tsu's perceptive streak also applied to the green haired boy.

"Fine, I guess I did that," Kyoka sighed as her finger fiddled with one of her jacks. "But it's not just 'cause I'm… interested either. I just wanna be sure that he's not going to end up in anything weird."

"Weird how?" Mina, head tilted to the side, asked between curious glances.

Kyoka returned the girls' looks with some skepticism. Even if her own doubts had mostly been quelled during the previous month, last night's event had reignited the flame by pouring gasoline on it. She now felt like Midoriya wasn't at fault, but it wasn't that hard to see that there was something strange going on.

"Come on, I can't be the only one who has noticed how odd it is that everything always happens around him or because of him," she remarked, her eyes darting between Momo and Tsuyu, the less oblivious among her classmates. "I mean, I know I pick up on a lot of stuff because of these—" She pointed at her jacks "—but it's been like that from the very start of this year."

The other girls exchanged some glances, their expressions between curious and surprised.

"Did we miss something?" Setsuna whispered to the girls on her side, who didn't know how to reply.

"Um, is she-?" "Does it have to do with your-?" Mina and Itsuka started to ask towards the heiress and the invisible girl.

Momo raised a hand, stopping further questions. "Please, could you elaborate on that?" she asked, as friendly as ever, if somewhat more seriously. "You're not alone in your discoveries, but I would like to know if we are on the same page regarding what you've noticed."

Although she knew that she would have to talk about everything after saying what she had already said, Kyoka freezed for a moment at those words. Getting asked that by Momo was a new kind of scary, something that made her feel unsure of her choice. She didn't want to be the bitch that caused two—or eight—of her friends to split up—or whatever it could be before they even got together—when it was so clear that they only wished for something nice.

Still, Kyoka silenced that voice that told her to just give up and to accept that they wouldn't believe a word she would say. These girls were her friends, probably the best ones she'd ever made. She could trust her gut and speak without fearing abandonment.

- Well, here goes nothing… -

"Yeah, sure," she shrugged, playing it off as nonchalantly as she could. "I've got quite a few."

Kyoka started lifting her fingers as she recounted.

"Day one, apprehension test. Green told me to cover my ears before he could throw the ball, even if I hadn't even shown my Quirk yet. Day two, battle trials. He had a whole ass conversation with Toru about how her Quirk's functions, while looking directly in her eyes—yeah, sorry, didn't mean to hear all that," she quickly excuses herself, making Toru shrug with a "No biggie."

"Same day. He said that he had found weird things about our Quirks, then proceeded to analyze everything as if he was the one born with them."

"Isn't that just his Quirk analysis though?" Setsuna pointed out, unconvinced.

"Let her continue, ribbit."

"Day three. He was elected Class Rep and saved the day when the alarm rang in the canteen, reacting within an instant and without needing any explanation as to what the sound meant," Kyoka obliged.

"Oh, yeah, we only got the whole spiel about security after that, didn't we?" Ochaco thought aloud.

"U.S.J. attack," Kyoka continued, disliking the general uncomfortable shiver at the mention of the worst day of their school year. "Before we could enter he talked with Kaminari, Ojiro, and Toru."

"Me?" the girl in question asked, having forgotten about the instance.

The punk nodded. "Yeah. He told you that Mina wanted to chat or something. Same goes for the other two with Mineta and Koda. And he also told me to stay close to Yaomomo."

- And that he trusts me, for some reason… - she thought with some self-loathing, since speaking this freely behind his back felt a lot like a betrayal of that same trust given without a true reason.

"I do remember walking inside side by side," the heiress confirmed.

"I don't think I said anything about chatting with Toru…" Mina said, pensive.

"Why would he do that?" Setsuna questioned.

"Maybe he was, like, looking out for you or something?" Ochaco tried.

Tsu hummed. "He probably was, ribbit, considering what came next."

"The portal Villain, yeah," Kyoka agreed, feeling that the greenette had understood where she was going. "Green pushed me and Yaomomo out of the way and got caught by himself, but all the groups he made ended up together. Ojiro was with Koda and Tokoyami, Toru was with Mina and us by the door, and Kaminari was with Mineta and Tsu, right?"

The frog girl ribbited in confirmation while Mina looked even more confused.

"So you're saying that he knew what was going to happen or something?"

Kyoka shrugged. "To be honest, I don't know. I don't want to throw around accusations, but you've got to admit that it's weird."

"It is, yeah," Itsuka conceded. "But it was a positive thing, right? Nobody got hurt."

"Yeah. It was scary, but we ended up fine," Ochaco quickly reassured.

"We taught that Villain not to take us lightly," Mina added proudly.

"And Kyoka also saved Thirteen from a potential life-threatening injury," Momo commented with a smile, making the punk blush lightly with a "'was nothing great."

After a moment in thought, Tsuyu analyzed her own situation. "We were very lucky as well, ribbit. Kaminari was the perfect counter to water-dwelling Villains, Mineta could block them, and I could get us all to safety."

"But now it doesn't sound like luck, does it?" Setsuna interjected.

"It doesn't," the frog girl ribbited, but didn't elaborate, instead turning toward Kyoka. "Is there more, ribbit?"

"Sure," Kyoka nodded, deciding to speed up things and only go for the big stuff. "Week before the Sports Festival, when Green and Aizawa came to class with Eri."

"Damn, you had her in class?" Setsuna let out, sounding somewhat impressed and envious at the thought.

"Yeah! She was so cute," Toru giggled.

Kyoka glossed over the comments. "When we asked him for info on how she was found, Green didn't tell us the whole truth. He already knew what her Quirk was, or at least that it was dangerous, and that the story about Eri being lost was fabricated."

"That could easily have been a condition set by Mr. Aizawa or the Principal though," Itsuka pointed out. "A non-disclosure agreement would have sufficed."

"That's what I ended up with too," Kyoka agreed. "Though, again, just him? He just randomly ended up in the same room as Eri and she latched on him like he's the only one he could trust in the world?"

"I mean, he's super friendly with anyone," Mina argued, a finger playing with her hair. "Of course he'd try and make Eri smile as soon as he saw her. Do you remember how inexpressive she was back then?"

"And so jumpy too," Toru added sadly.

"All true, ribbit. But, as Kyoka said, it does sound like a very convenient explanation for something else," Tsuyu mused.

"I concur. Please, continue," Momo suggested with a small hand gesture. 

"Well, there's the Sports Festival, but that one isn't that weird, even if Green caught a lot of attention. Considering how strong the guy is, he was bound to end up first," Kyoka conceded.

"Pretty much, but at least he made things challenging," Ochaco happily noted as the group agreed.

Kyoka decided not to dwell on the few words exchanged between the brunette and the boy while on stage, as the other had asked not to before. The choice of their Hero aliases wasn't that important either, mostly because their classmates had chosen to swarm the boy, not the other way around. Instead, she went for the next big thing, arguably the one they knew the least about.

"Then there's Hosu, Stain, and the flying Nomu," Kyoka said while raising three fingers. "Out of forty-one students only three were in the area of the attack, but only Ida was supposed to be there for his internships."

"I think Todoroki said something about his father wanting to catch Stain though," Ochaco pointed out, looking up in thought. "So the same could have applied to Izuku."

"Wait, All Might's Agency is in Tokyo, isn't it? Doesn't that track?" Mina asked, remembering that Hosu was just a ward of the nation's capital.

"It would, but Green said that he never went there," Kyoka retorted. "He and All Might stayed with his former mentor or something, somewhere in the Yamashi prefecture."

"I mean, how long do you think it would take for All Might to fly from Yamashi to Tokyo? It's barely one prefecture over," Setsuna chuckled. "He could've just answered the alert."

"Yeah, I know," she sighed. "But how likely is it that, out of everyone there, the one to get caught by the flying Nomu would be Green? And we all know how good his reflexes are, so the 'getting caught' part is weird too."

Itsuka, veteran of too many attempts at catching the greenette off guard, huffed in agreement. "You're not wrong, he's usually lightning fast… but that may just have been a bad moment. He might have been tired, even though he's also extremely resilient…"

"Right?" Kyoka exclaimed, glad to see that some of her words were getting through. "I know I would have never been able to dodge it, hearing or no hearing, but Green? He's dodged- no, he caught Yaomomo's bullets!"

The heiress cleared her throat to grab their attention. "Mine were hardly the same speed of real bullets, but I see your point. Still, I know it must have been a terrible experience for him."

"Oh, hell, I'm not disagreeing on that," Kyoka shook her head with a grumble. "Kidnapped by a Nomu, saved by Stain, and held as a prize for a match between that madman and All Might? No thanks."

The group agreed. Exciting, but not the best way to spend their first field experience.

Kyoka shifted a bit on the covers as she thought about her next piece.

"Then there's all the little things that happened in the last month, I guess," the punk started. "Remember the hole in the changing room?" she asked, being answered by a collective irritated groan. "Well, that's when I started looking out for things… And Green's not really suspicious in any way, it's just that… he's kind of everywhere? Like, the way you two made it easier for our classes to cohabitate," she said, gesturing towards Itsuka. "You do a great job at keeping things under control even in this mess of a dorm, but have you seen how Green is always around doing anything with anyone? He's constantly jumping around from one commitment to the next. Running, cooking, studying, gardening, training, dancing, singing, playing; you name it, Green's there doing it. He doesn't keep a moment to himself."

"He… kind of does a lot of stuff," Ochaco noted, sounding as if it was the first time she thought of it.

"More," Kyoka sighed. "'A lot' would be fine for someone like Mina, who's a social butterfly. But even Mina doesn't spend time with everybody."

"I mean, if I could, I probably would," the horned girl interjected with a chuckle. "But yeah, that sounds super exhausting."

"You can be friends with everybody, but you've gotta be closer to some people, right?" Setsuna asked rhetorically.

"But Green hangs out with almost everybody, and he treats them all like they've known each other for ages!" Kyoka reiterated, hammering the point. "Chess with Ida, Shoda, and others. Sleight of hand with Kuroiro and Monoma. Fencing with Kamakiri and Yaomomo. Occult with Tokoyami and Reiko. Comics with Sero and Manga. Video games with the guys. Music with the chorus. The book club. The garden. The gym. Morning runs. He's always there with a smile and the perfect thing to say at the right moment!" She spoke at an increasingly fast pace. "He makes Koda and Bondo open up! Koda and Bondo, for crying out loud!"

"Next you're gonna tell me that he managed to make Yui say more than a phrase a week," Setsuna snickered.

"I wouldn't put it past him at this point," Itsuka tsked.

"It does sound like a touch too much," Momo commented after a momentary pause.

"Even hearing that list made me more tired…" Toru complained.

"But if he's happy doing it…" Mina started, leaving the idea hanging in the air.

"Um, so… you followed him around to see how much he was doing?" a puzzled Ochaco asked the punkette.

Kyoka blinked. - Great, now you've totally outed yourself as a stalker. God going, you moron. -

She fought hard to contain a grumble, deflating instead.

"Not that much, but… I kinda did, yeah," she sighed. "I know that it sounds… bad, and I feel terrible about it… But with all the weird stuff that's been happening around him I didn't want to leave anything to chance."

"Come on, it's Midori we're talking about. It's not like he's gonna do anything bad," Mina jokingly commented while raising an eyebrow.

"N-No, it wasn't for that," Kyoka quickly deflected. "I mean, he's never been the problem. Not even once." And she would know. "Just- Everything around him is kinda crazy… At first I wanted to check on him, but then I connected some dots and got scared, so it became something for his sake too…" She didn't stop despite the increasingly worried glances. "I didn't know what could happen, and I wanted to be there, just in case…"

"Why? What's the worst that could happen?" Toru asked, her voice somewhat more apprehensive than she would have expected.

The worst?

Kyoka had thought about it for a while. The idea that Green could have been in cahoots with the Villains invading the U.S.J. had admittedly crossed her mind, but it didn't fit with what had happened towards the end of that disaster. Every good deed of his seemed to come out of genuine caring and, although Green could be terrifying when he wanted to be, he mostly looked like a guy that wouldn't hurt a fly. Moreover, would a Villain ever put themselves under the constant scrutiny of so many Heroes, including the most intelligent, Nezu, and one who had a shot for the title of the most paranoid, Eraser Head?

No, there were just too many reasons why he wouldn't fit as a Villain. But that line of reasoning had brought her to the opposite side of the spectrum, which made a lot more sense.

Kyoka bit her lower lip for a moment before releasing her worst case scenario.

"The U.S.J. Villains may come back for him."

Toru eeped and the girls' eyes widened, their expressions instantly switching from somewhat relaxed to overly anxious and horrified.

"W-Why would they?" Ochaco stuttered.

Kyoka tightened her hold around one of her elongated earlobes.

"You all didn't hear what that Shigaraki guy said as they escaped," she explained. "He might have been there to kill All Might… but by the end Green was the one he swore vengeance against."

Tsu flinched, her eyes acquiring a shade of dread. "I- I remember him shouting, ribbit, but not what he said. I was too distracted by Izuku passing out."

That made sense, as the shouts calling the teen's name had been what had caused Kyoka to shift her focus towards the event.

"Yeah, Shigaraki saw him fall and shouted that he hoped that Green wasn't dying because he wanted to make him suffer first… and that he would come back for him in person."

The threat hadn't been brought up again afterwards, but she didn't want to take it lightly.

"That's… That's not going to happen while we're at school, right?" Mina asked, clearly shaken. "We're safe here."

"Saf- er ," Setsuna pointed out gravely. "U.A. might be one of the safest places in the world as long as All Might stays here, and the system's been upgraded or whatever, but we've already seen that it's not infallible."

Kyoka begrudgingly nodded. "Yeah. I trust the teachers, but those Villains… If someone was crazy enough to invade U.A. to kill a whole class and All Might once, what stops them from trying again to dispose of a much smaller pain in the neck?"

Many things could be said about Green being the best among the first years, but he didn't hold a candle to All Might himself.

"They haven't been caught yet, so I wouldn't take them lightly, no," Itsuka agreed with a heavy expression.

"Statistically, Villains holding grudges will come back to take revenge seven to eight times out of ten," Momo noted. "We would have every right to worry."

"Mr. Aizawa did say that the dormitories were being introduced to keep us safe from Villain retaliation," Tsu reminded them. "And this may also explain why Izuku stayed in school longer and was present to see Eri, ribbit. He was being protected. All Might and Mr. Aizawa were both there to hear the threat, so it's only logical that they might have reacted accordingly."

Kyoka remained pensive for a moment, examining the frog girl's idea. "It could be, yeah… Damn, I hadn't thought of that, but it makes sense…"

"He must have some other way to keep himself safe, right?" Ochaco asked.

Momo hummed pensively. "Perhaps he may be wearing a tracker, or a failsafe of some kind."

"Who knows," Kyoka said, shaking her head lightly. "It's not like I could just come out and ask. Only thing I can say is that it doesn't look like the whole thing bothers him."

"No, I think it does," Toru let out. "He's just good at hiding it, and since nobody ever asked…"

"He wouldn't have a reason to bring it up," Mina concluded with a sigh before turning to the punk. "But why didn't you say anything? We could've helped!"

Kyoka looked down at the awkward point being brought up. "I, um, didn't really think about it… And if anyone had to be caught doing what's just illegal Quirk usage, somewhat dressed in good intentions, I'd rather be the only one who gets expelled, you know?"

"Kyoka!" Ochaco yelled, aghast. "You can't be serious!"

Mina crossed her arms. "A bit excessive, dontcha think?"

"But she's not wrong, ribbit. It was an unprompted use of her Quirk for a private investigation," Tsu pointed out.

Kyoka felt herself shrink under those words. Keeping her eyes on the bedding had never been so compelling as an option.

"But it's not like we'd tell on you either, ribbit."

Surprised, she dared to raise her chin and look at the frog girl. Tsuyu seemed as peaceful as ever, while the others were shrugging and smiling.

"Ribbit, it would be quite hypocritical of me to accuse you of Quirk misusage when I'm constantly training my senses in the same way," the greenette confessed.

Toru hummed along. "It's not like you had some secret agenda or something…"

"That and, as I've said before, we've all checked out Parsley a few times," Setsuna added as her hand patted her back. "And it's not like you spied on him in the changing room, right?"

"NO!" Kyoka screeched in horror, both disgusted by the sudden image of the role reversal and flushing deeply because of it. "Why would I do that?!"

The lizard girl seemed overly content with her reply. "See? You weren't just thinking of scratching an itch- ouch!"

Itsuka interrupted the other with a light flick on her forehead before looking at Kyoka directly, teal orbs staring into her own. The girl's moral compass was anything if not straight, and the musician started to fear what may come out of her mouth.

"Do you feel bad about it?" the Class Rep spoke, deadly serious.

Kyoka swallowed as her uncertainty disappeared. That was one of the few things she was absolutely sure about. The sky is blue, the Sun rises in the east, and…

"I feel like shit, yeah," she admitted, starting to let the words flow out. "I felt like leaving him be a bunch of times, 'cause I wanted to trust him and be done with that mess, but I also couldn't shake those awful thoughts… Call me paranoid, or a stalker, but I've never wanted to break anybody's privacy just for shits and giggles. I wanted to help and I wanted answers, even if it meant feeling this bad about it. But god, I feel like such a bitch!" she spat out, getting increasingly angry at herself. "Green's insane, but all I saw him do was help everybody he could! He said that he trusted me— me! —when all I did was doubt him! So, yeah, I'm awful, this shit's awful, and I deserve it!"

Was she shivering? She was just so damn tired…

Kyoka noticed that several people had closed in only when their arms wrapped around her. She heard sniffs—hers?—but she mostly felt the warmness of the almost-strangling group hug. Any other day she would have blushed like mad at being held so close by Momo, but at that moment her mind was somewhere else.

Itsuka had kept her gaze locked on hers, and now the cold, serious guise was softening into an expression that suited the ginger far more, a caring smile.

"I trust you," Itsuka stated as she rested her hand on Kyoka's. "You're not a bad person, Kyoka. Your intentions were good, and a bad person wouldn't feel the need to vent that much frustration and self-loathing."

She stared for a moment, unsure about what to say, as a few tears pooled around the bottom of her eyes. She wouldn't cry, but it was hard to keep her muscles from wobbling in response.

"Yeah, dummy, stop talking shit about my friend," Mina pouted. "The Kyoka I know is freaking awesome, so you stop that."

"Then you don't know me," Kyoka sobbed.

"But we do, Kyoka," Momo's words reached her from the left side, gentle and homely. "And I agreed with Itsuka and Mina. You could never be a bad person."

"But-"

"No buts," Ochaco interjected, squeezing the punk's arm with her four-fingered grip. "This is a self-loathing free zone now," she stated with a tone that was meant to discourage any and all refusals.

"Nothing's gonna change our minds, ribbit," Tsu confirmed.

Kyoka tensed, unable to relax even as they did their best to calm her. Would they still say that if she told them everything? Whatever they wanted to do, her friends needed to know.

"There's more," she confessed, clenching her hands and keeping her eyes down. "You're not gonna like it."

The girls moved slightly, but didn't let go of her. She couldn't decide if it felt constricting or pleasant.

"We'll see," Itsuka said, her smile unperturbed. "Tell us. Get the weight off your chest."

- Eh. That almost sounds nice. -

Kyoka swallowed, feeling her throat dry beyond reasonable limits.

"Yesterday night I found Eri's clip in the common room," she started. "I didn't know what to do with it because of the curfew. Shoji suggested giving it to Midoriya, but he wasn't there."

"Yeah, Shinso practically ordered him to sleep last night," Toru hummed.

"Which means that it wasn't really a break he wanted to take," Mina frowned lightly.

"He probably needed it then, ribbit. He can't be deadly tired next week, even if he doesn't look like he is at all," Tsu said matter-of-factly. "So, you went up to his room?"

Kyoka nodded. "Here things get weird, 'cause I heard him invite me in, but when I did I found him already asleep," she groaned between the looks of confusion. "His Quirk was on, lights and all, but he was out. I checked," she added, her jacks moving slightly.

Setsuna hummed pensively. "Mm, same as Reiko?"

"Not exactly." She slowly shook her head. "Reiko didn't talk, her Qui- Emily did. No, Green was sleep talking."

"What'd he say?" Toru asked, her voice curious but slightly on edge.

"... My name."

"He recognized you?" Ochaco asked, taken aback. "That's weird."

"Not really. Recognizing people by their voice isn't that hard, and you know how good his hearing is," Tsuyu pointed out. "It's not the most unreasonable thing Izuku has done."

That could be said about what came next though.

"He said it multiple times," she continued. "Kyoka or Kyo, but I don't know why—he's never called me that." She was always 'Jiro' for him.

"Oh, was it, like, a dirty dream or something?" Mina asked tentatively, gaining some rolling eyes and blushing cheeks. "You know, boys-"

"No," she grimaced, interrupting the comment. "He said it like he was suffering… He cried."

The frown on the girl's face led her to believe that she'd much rather have taken the former option.

"Must have been some bad shit, but you can't blame him for dreaming stuff," Setsuna sighed deeply, her voice gaining a clear note of frustration. "It's not like we can choose whether to get nightmares or not."

Her jaw clenched harder, hurting her teeth a bit. She had to get it out.

"He didn't stop there. He said…" She closed her eyes to find her resolve and took a breath to steel it, reading herself for squeals and questions by hiding her jacks beneath her hands. "... 'Please, I love you.'"

She was met with caught breaths and silence.

Kyoka opened her eyes to see Itsuka looking questioningly towards her right side. Turning in the same direction, she noticed that everybody had their eyes glued on Momo and Toru, while the first girl in question looked at Kyoka with renewed interest and a small smile.

"Wait," Mina spoke from the other side, her golden eyes quickly switching between the heiress, the invisible girl, and Kyoka herself. "Did he… because of…?"

"Oh my, no," Momo—sounding shocked—quickly amended whatever the horned girl was going to ask. "Izuku didn't reject us because of it. If anything, we think that it is what gives us a chance in the first place."

Kyoka did a double take as soon as her brain compiled her friend's words.

"He rejected you?!"

Her yell made the entire group flinch backwards in surprise.

All things considered, it wasn't her style, but it wasn't like she could have done anything else. Kyoka just couldn't compute those words as something even remotely possible. It was sheer lunacy. Absolutely-fucking-impossible. Who the hell did Green think he was?!

"No, that's not it!" Toru hurriedly interjected, sleeves shaking. "It wasn't really a rejection either… It was, like, a…"

"I believe his words were: 'You should take your time to think about it,'" Momo specified, lowering her hands to tell them to quiet down. "You see, Toru and I have already talked with Izuku about our interest, just the day after our sleepover. Though, I'm afraid that the discussion didn't go as we would have expected it to."

"To say the least," Toru groaned. "He told us something that we can't share—sorry—and yeah, he told us to think about it… The only thing we can say is that it's heavy stuff, and that's making it really hard for Izuku to-"

"Toru," the heiress cut in. "They need context, or it will just make them more anxious."

The invisible girl sighed. "Yeah… sorry…"

"Right. Because we aren't getting anxious about it anyway," Setsuna said sarcastically with a roll of her eyes.

"We'll get answers soon," Itsuka noted, glancing at her phone's clock for confirmation.

Gears were turning in Kyoka's head. Toru and Momo had tried and had been turned down, but not really? Green had a secret that they wouldn't talk about, but it was bad enough to have them mull over it for weeks? And it also sounded like he was putting the choice in their hands, since the girls were the ones that had to "think about it"?

- Well, add that to the list of weird stuff, - she thought with a huff.

"How soon?" she asked.

"As soon as Midori gives us the green light," Mina replied, raising her phone and showing a screen empty of texts or missed calls.

"Right. While we're at it, do you want to catch her up on the rest of it?" Itsuka asked, her eyes moving towards Mina again, as she still had something to say.

The horned girl noticed and connected the dots. "Oh, right, Kyoka doesn't know my part," she spoke, moving a bit so that everybody could see her. "Well, you see…"

The musician nodded and listened, only snorting lightly after the horned girl had finished her tale. 

"In the supply closet? Cliché much?" she noted, managing a tired smirk to give back some of the teasing she had received.

"Hey, it was kinda romantic," Mina retorted, pouting a bit.

"Well, clichés are so for a reason," Toru offered, giggling at her friend's sulking.

"I can see it," Setsuna commented, her smirk equally teasing. "Still sweaty, alone in that nice hiding spot…"

Mina used a pillow to try and hit the jokester, missing by an inch.

Itsuka rolled her eyes despite the light blush on her cheeks. "Please, let's stay on track."

"Yeah, ribbit," Tsu agreed. "You already know about Yaomomo and Toru, and the rest of us don't have more to add that you wouldn't already know."

"I guess," Kyoka shrugged, frowning a little. "But since I knew nothing of all of—" She gestured with her hands to the room around her. "—this, we can say that I'm a fucking terrible detective."

"I mean, you're here getting answers now," Ochako pointed out, as supportive as she could sound.

"You respected some healthy boundaries, and nobody got hurt," Itsuka agreed.

"If you say so," the musician huffed, unconvinced. Then, as her ears picked up on something, she added, "Mina, your phone is vibrating."

Kyoka's words made the girls' eyes fall on the phone by the other's side, half-hidden between the blanket's folds.

"Told you it wouldn't be that long!" The horned girl exclaimed as the screen's light brightened her face. She gave a quick glance at it before smiling, rolling to get off the bed and on her feet. "He says we can go! Thanks, Kyoka, we might have missed that if we kept talking!"

"I knew we should have kept it under watch," Momo sighed.

Tsu was out of her spot with a jump and a shrug. "Too late for that, ribbit, and it's no use worrying about it now. Let's get going."

The rest of the group followed quickly, leaving behind the heiress' room without as much as a spare thought.

Kyoka kept up, walking in the back of the group besides Momo and feeling suddenly very much awake. She hoped that the rush of energy she had just gotten would last her long enough to get through another round of "confessing my dumb secrets."

Maybe she wouldn't be joining whatever this was after all of her fuck-ups, but she would be getting some damn answers.

The current cycle had been going fine for a while, things proceeding according to schedule for the most part. Izuku hadn't changed much, at least to his knowledge. He couldn't begin to guess where things had taken this strange new turn, which was something that irked him to no end. He needed to know what he could cause and which effects his actions had.

And yet, here he was, finding himself in uncharted territory, events happening months before they could have happened—if they did at all—and in the strangest, most unexpected ways possible.

Izuku had been stuck in his head for a while, but looking at the clock told him that he had run out of time.

"Time to face the music, Kid," Daigoro said to take him out of his own head.

"You'll be fine, Sprout, I just know it," Nana tried to reassure him.

"We're here if you need anything," Yoichi finished. It was nice to know that he'd have access to his Quirk, if needed.

The greenette nodded, silently thanking the vestiges. He composed himself as much as he could, trying to straighten his shirt, and sent a message to Mina.

- And now we wait. -

Izuku turned his chair around, having its back facing his desk so that he could face the rest of the room. He raised himself up, and started to pace around the room, trying to steady his heartbeat all the way. Some things still managed to get to him.

He didn't know which and how many people would be behind that door in a few minutes, but he wasn't really thinking about that.

No, the boy wondered about how they would be leaving from that very same door after their discussion.

After all, if there was one thing he knew, it was that being left alone was the one thing he couldn't handle.

" And you never will ," the voice in his head whispered before letting out a dark laugh.