Musume

Chapter 30

Yumi listened intently to her teacher’s words in TV. She could almost picture in her mind his tired countenance and blazing eyes.

Everything was going wrong.

Her and Bakugo captured by villains and UA in trouble due to that. The faith of their society in the institution ruined.

“It’s so strange. Why are heroes being criticized?” asked Shigaraki in a falsely innocent manner, an undertone of gloating in his voice. “They weren’t dealing with things in the best way… Is it because it’s their job to protect? We all make mistakes… Do we have to be perfect? Modern heroes are so tense… Don’t you think, Bakugo-kun?”

She could almost feel her fellow student trembling from rage beside her.

“The moment the heroes start receiving a compensation for helping others, they stop being heroes.” Added Spinner.

She could easily tell that he was a follower of Stain, even before he confirmed it himself.

“The strange system of turning the lives of people into money or glory. Our fight is to question: what is a hero? What is justice? Is this society truly fair?” continued Shigaraki.

“No society is truly fair.” She intervened then in a soft voice. “No society is perfect. But we can try to make it better.”

“Spoken like a true hero.” Replied Shigaraki sounding a mix of fascinated and disgusted. “But the thing is, we plan to win, don’t you like to win too?”

She could sense his question wasn’t directed at her, but at her classmate. She wasn’t really worried, though; she had faith in Bakugo. He could not be the most even tempered person she knew, but he had strong convictions.

“Dabi, free him.”

“What? The guy’s going to fight.” Answered another raspy voice.

“It’s fine. We need to treat him as an equal, since we’re getting to know each other. Besides, you can tell if you’ll win or lose in this situation, right, UA student?”

Yumi remained silent as they ordered someone called Twice to untie her classmate.

“Don’t do anything brash…” she hissed to her fellow.

But of course he didn’t listen and attacked Shigaraki head on almost as soon as he was free.

“You idiots always talk too much. I want to win like All Might! No matter what people say, that will never change!”

“Bakugo, my blindfold!”

There was a commotion that she felt more than heard and then her blindfold was coming off but…

She only got a glimpse of Bakugo being reduced before something hard and cold pressed to her neck, soon followed by a hand wrapping over her eyes.

“If you try any tricks, I’ll open a bright smile on your neck.” Said the voice of the guy called Dabi.

She could feel a trickle of blood slowly sliding down her front and she almost didn’t dare to breathe.

“Ohhh, she looks so pretty covered in blood… please, let me add to it!” shouted the girl she’d got a glimpse of before, apparently now free of her paralyzing stare.

“Oi, oi, I told you she was to be unharmed.” Replied Shigaraki. “Back off, Toga.”

“Would you rather we all be petrified by her gaze?” asked Dabi, but the pressure of his knife on her neck lessened.

“Hn.” Grunted Shigaraki before presumably turning to her classmate. “As for you…”

But then the sound of the TV caught their attention.

HPBNAHPBNAHPBNA

“You spoke about the security of the students, Eraser-head. During the incident, it seems you pushed them to fight. What was your intention behind that?”

“I reached that conclusion because we could not wholly understand the situation and it was necessary to avoid the worst possible result.” Replied Aizawa having expected the question.

“What do you mean by ‘the worst possible result’? Are 27 victims and two kidnappings not the worst result possible?” pressed the reporter.

“The worst result I pictured in that situation was the students not knowing what to do and being murdered.”

“The gas attack was responsible for most of the victims.” Added Nezu to his right. “We have determined it was a sleeping gas produced by the quirk of one of the enemies. Thanks to Tetsu-tetsu-kun’s and Kendo-san’s fast actions, the victims were not in a worse state. Additionally, we’re offering psychological help to the students, but we have yet to find any signs of long-lasting trauma.”

“You consider that good?”

Aizawa’s eyes sharpened on the man and he committed the name to memory for future reference.

“We believe the worst result would be something that affected their future.”

“Can you say the same for the kidnapped Bakugo-kun and Yagi-san? Bakugo entered the UA with the highest scores and he won the sport’s festival. He also resisted the attack of a villain in secondary school, so he had a history that shows how strong and heroic he could be. However, he showed quiet a violent side during the sport’s festival too. And then there’s Yagi-san; she showed promise and reached the semifinals of the sport’s festival with a rather weak quirk, but I did some investigation and somehow all information about her is covered in red tape by Might’s Agency, which by itself is already suspicious enough. What if the villains kidnapped them because of that? Kidnapping them with tricks and walking them down the path of evil. What evidence do you have to claim they have a future?”

Slowly, Aizawa got up from his seat, trembling with rage. He hated the media, but at that moment he hated them more than ever. Then he saw the tick of satisfaction in the reporter’s face and his rage doubled, but his mind cleared.

He bowed in apology.

“As his teacher, I assume the fault for Bakugo Katsuki’s violent behavior. He works harder than anyone to become the number one hero. As for Yagi Hiroyumi, she is an exemplary student whose past is confidential for her own security. If the villains saw all that and thought they had a chance, then I believe they have little vision of the future.”

That seemed to throw the reporter a bit off his game, but he persisted.

“It is not a question of how you feel. What I’m really asking is if you have a plan in mind.”

HPBNAHPBNAHPBNA

“We’ll definitely recover our students.” Finished their director’s voice.

“You said it, UA and sensei! That’s how things are, League of Dirt!”

Yumi almost smiled at her classmate’s words. Almost, because she was busy worrying over what had been revealed about her and if they’d let it slide.

No such luck, it seemed, as a voice whispered in her ear.

“Might Agency, uh? What’s your relation to All Might’s hero agency?”

She remained quiet, but it had confirmed one thing. The villains hadn’t known about it when they’d decided to capture her, so they must want something else from her.

Then Bakugo made his intentions of fighting them clear and she wanted to hit him. The best he could’ve done would be to at least feign an interest. However, a small part of her understood that the mere idea of feigning belonging to a villain group was disgusting.

Everyone seemed to be getting ready for a fight and she tensed in her seat, the edge of Dabi’s knife pressing more firmly against her neck, when Shigaraki’s voice finally intervened.

“Don’t touch them. They’re valuable pieces.” He said slowly. “I wish you had listened to me more attentively… I thought we could understand each other…”

“Understand each other? No way.” Replied Katsuki with a fierce smile in his own voice.

“Then I have no other choice. The heroes said they’d keep investigating us… we have no time to speak calmly. Sensei,” he said then making her tense even more. “lend me your power.”

“You’ve made a good choice, Shigaraki Tomura.” Replied another voice that made her blood freeze in her veins.

If her suspicions were right… this voice… it belonged to All For One.

HPBNAHPBNAHPBNA

Once they reached the presumed hideout of the villains, Mezo started to do his magic. The ends of his six arms turned into ears and he listened intently.

“I can hear several people breathing, but it’s slow, as if they were asleep, and there’s a strange watery sound too.”

“Alright, we’ll go through the back.” Decided Izuku.

Soon enough, they discovered the presence of several Nomu in the building and their hopes of pulling off a rescue without fighting started to plummet.

HPBNAHPBNAHPBNA

“Sensei? You’re not the boss here?” laughed Bakugo and Yumi, if possible, tensed more. “That’s no fun.”

“Bakugo, shut up…” she hissed.

“Why? This guy is giving orders as if he’s the boss when in truth he’s just another underling…”

“Kurogiri, Compress, put him to sleep again.”

But suddenly, in the middle of the silence, there was a sound from the door.

“Hello, I’m from Pizza-La Kamino.”

Yumi didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Until the sound of a wall exploding and a familiar ‘smash!’ reached her ears.