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third person pov
6:06 pm
july 7th
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AT THIS POINT, Ito and Izuku would be fully prepared for the summer Olympics. If only the games were still around, these two distance runners could win gold.
After three panicked minutes of booking it down identical empty corridors, the young man took a sharp turn and nearly gave Ito more whiplash.
But it was for a worthy cause, seeing as 180 more seconds of breathe held time ticked by, and the tyrant still hadn't found them out.
As they sat shoulder to shoulder against the teacher's podium in anticipation, their breathing got slower once again. Almost as if they were taunting life, just daring it to shock them.
"I think.. we're safe..?" Midoriya whispered, quite wishy-washy about that statement.
They both had their eyes locked onto the window's reflection of the sliding door. In case of the tank-like teenager bulldozing in, Izuku would understand what Ito said last night, about getting used to jumping out of windows.
Little Miss Rān though, sighed, taking his words as fact and exhaling some of the worry that had welled up inside her.
She looked down at her wrapped up hand, the one that hadn't been let go of since they entered the ear-ringingly quite room.
"We live in a world where someone could sneeze and light us on fire— I don't think we're ever safe damsel."
Her brisk chuckle echoed through the ominously empty room, fitting in perfectly with her words as the dust particles circulated around them.
"Always the optimist," he smiled, undertones of slight sarcasm.
Ito finally broke the staring contest she had with the glass, glaring at the boy refusing to meet her gaze.
"You bet I am!"
The fake cheerful voice changed that however, making him turn his head and quirk an eyebrow.
"I'm also in the perfect position to dislocate your thumb!" Ito tilted her head sideways as she brought their hands up between them.
Rapidly squirming out the girl's grasp and scrambling to his feet, red faced Midoriya stood in front of Ito.
He put his hands in his hands in his pockets as he nervously laughed and stuttered over his words for a moment.
"Haha you're funny— very funny! So what was it that you wanted to talk about hmm?"
The way he changed his tone and the topic halfway through made Ito chuckle again as she pushed her sore self up.
Leaning against the podium now, she just loosely smirked at the kid, who clearly wanted to move on.
"You know I'm kidding right?" she raised her eyebrows, lips still upturned as she indulged this digression from his question.
He shrugged and had a strained smile, like he wasn't sure whether to laugh or lie.
"Wh— yeah, no, yes of course!" and there came both, along with avoidant eye contact.
"Uh huh," she doubtfully nodded, a small silence settling into the air.
Ito could feel her smile slowly fading, knowing the jokes were over. Only a conversation about how the world looked for the few minutes she stopped breathing could be seen in her near future.
She knew that it was now or never.
Ito cleared her throat, regaining the gaze of the now only slightly taller teen.
"Right, anyways, I just have a few questions," she shrugged, downplaying the importance.
He nodded, letting the captivating girl take her time.
"So last night when I was, you know," she made a motion with her hand, making Midoriya's gaze turn empathetic in knowing indeed.
"Did you see anything strange? Out of the ordinary?"
The curious to a fault boy tilted his head, "Do you mean before or after you came back to life?"
Ito slightly deadpanned at his question, despite it being a valid one.
"Both? Or during, I guess," she supposed.
He thought for a moment, chin resting in palm as his mind raced over every detail from the half traumatizing half exhilarating night.
Ito subconsciously suffocated her lungs in anticipation of his response for about twenty seconds of silence.
Until a small look of eureka sparked in the gorgeous green eyes across from the morally gray ones.
"There is something— isn't there??"
His mouth formed a small circle as his hand lowered slowly. Midoriya tilted his head to make eye contact with the girl's unusually worried expression.
"Now that you mention it.. yes," he admitted, wondering why she was so concerned.
After her mostly overly calm demeanor from last night, the fact that she looked like she got sucker punched from the villain that hit him? It made him anxious, to say the least.
"Well?? Spit it out!" she exasperatedly rushed, stepping closer upon feeling like her itching nerves were developing frost bite.
"Sorry!" he squeaked out an apology before spilling his guts.
"So basically when I first found you um— passed out, I knelt down to make sure you still had a pulse, since there was just—" he inhaled, looking a little unsure. "A lot of blood.."
She nodded, intently listening as much as her uninjured ear could.
"But right as I grabbed your wrist, a huge shock blasted me back, it was like a boom— oh or ZAP!" he made hand movements to emphasize the strong impact.
As if Ito needed visual aids, she was half deaf not half blind... Anymore.
Still, she shook her head up and down gradually, a puzzled look on her face.
"And that wasn't too strange since you got electrocuted, so sorry about that again by the way.. But what was weird was the light that flashed when the spark happened, was um, red?" his wavering tone was accompanied by one hand behind his head, the other in his pocket, and a good old fashioned shrug.
"I didn't know lighting could be red, to be honest."
Ito released an awe-struck exhale, eyes way too wide for her liking. She felt a wave of mixed emotions pulling her back to the ground, leaning and sliding down against the podium once more.
"Me either.." she defeatedly muttered out as she buried the bottom half of her face in her hand.
The boy's stresses spiked upon seeing her deflate on the floor, a thousand yard stare stitched into the aura of her irises.
His hands flew out in front of him as he knelt down on one knee in front of her, a bit panicked and not sure how to comfort a girl that wasn't his family.
"Hey hey it's okay! Whatever's wrong I'm sure you can tackle it! You're super strong you know?" his smile was genuine as were his words, but Ito didn't believe he was correct.
She glared at the dusty baseboards, taking all her vicious daggers out on it.
"Anything else?" was all she could muster up to say, still avoiding his pity filled face.
He almost flinched at her harsh tone, having heard a timbre like that his whole life, but he was fairly certain she wasn't mad at him.
But not wanting to test her patience, he frowned ever so lightly, having a hunch she wouldn't like this next part either.
"One more thing, yeah.. I couldn't find your pulse on your wrist, so I tried your neck and I still couldn't find it at first."
She began slowly moving her eyes back to his beating around the bush green ones.
"And??"
"And," he exhaled as he recalled the uncanny events. "Soon after I found it, another spark happened— this time blue."
Ito's face contorted into a concoction that can only be described as a witch's cauldron of foreboding trepidation and unease.
"But it didn't last long until it turned red again," he continued spilling the details, heart empathetic at her disturbed expression.
Ito rubbed her scarred temple from the stress headache she was getting, and the boy took some courage in the break of eye contact, dealing the final blow.
"And then it quickly morphed into purple just before it all faded away.."
She whipped her head up, eyes shooting open wider than he —along with most people— had ever seen.
She stood up, intimidating him and making Midoriya decide to stand too.
"Are you kidding right now?? Because if you are, I'm going to slap you into last week and not rescue you this time."
He now looked like a deer in headlights at her threat as he put his hands up near his chest in surrender.
"I'm not kidding! I swear that's what happened!!"
His desperation to get her to believe him was prevalent, which was good. Ito wasn't about to trust a kid who she just met unless she was positive he was telling the truth.
She exhaled a scary puff of carbon dioxide as she brushed past Izuku and sat on a front row desk, unbearably frazzled from these facts.
"The air tasted purple, I guess that's why," she numbly muttered while biting her thumbnail, a humorless scoff following suit.
However, considering the chronic mumbler was fluent in that language, he still understood, and listened while she began a spiel.
"Why those colors? Red and blue make purple, was that why purple showed up? But what do those colors even represent? Or does it represent nothing and it's just random? Is it going to be different every time? Oh my god is there going to be another time? Probably so— I can't imagine it would just randomly stop, right?"
Midoriya just blinked, mouth once again forming an O shape.
'She talks like me!'
Shaking his head to refocus, he cracked a nervous smile, slightly scared to ask her questions for fear of overstepping.
"Wait so, what is it? The thing that you don't think is going to stop?"
Realizing she started spilling her worry filled guts out, Ito had no plans to continue.
Looking at the curious boy, her face dimmed, not knowing if she could really tell him what's seeming to happen to her. After all, if he told the authorities she'd easily become a lab rat.
Standing up to leave, the wavering young woman decided to close up, like she had chosen time and time again.
"Y'know what, it's really nothing that needs to stress you out anymore. I gotta go but thanks for filling me in and stuff."
She quickly (as quickly as someone with her limitations could move) walked towards the door but had a nagging hunch that she wasn't getting away that easy.
"H-hey wait!"
'Knew it.'
The pessimist sighed, knowing it took a lot for him to try and tell her what to do. Ito complied for the moment, but didn't turn around as she waiting for whatever he was going to say.
"You look different."
Her eyebrow lifted in confusion, definitely not expecting a statement anywhere along those lines.
"You're taller, your hair's longer, you aren't wearing your glasses and yet, it seems like you can see just fine somehow. I think something hap—"
"Nothing. Happened." she spat out as she turned around to face him, shoulders tensed as she really emphasized the first word.
He wanted to jolt backwards at her sudden movements, but his determination did a good job at holding him in place.
"But I—"
"Drop it Damsel!" Ito finally snapped, raising her voice from feeling more and more cornered by the second.
Normally people would take offense when Ito berated them like that, they'd come back at the delinquent with something even worse to wound her, fueling a fiery fight.
But that wasn't Midoriya. He just sighed, his once outstretched hands slowly cascading down in front of him, with one palm gripping the other hand's wrist.
His whole head lowered a little, accepting her rebuke. Izuku's gaze now locked on to his digital All-Might watch that he begun fidgeting with to ease the anxiety.
"Right.. Sorry."
And now, Ito felt guilt strike her struggling conscience, much like the multicolored bolts she'd been zapped by all day. This was the exact reincarnation of what she saw quite often at home when babysitting Itona.
He'd push and push until she lost her cool, exploding at his persistence. Sometimes, the stress of being a teenager with an absent working mom, no father, and terrible old school friends lurking around every dark corner was too much.
She'd break down and took it out on someone who deserved it the least. And payed for it by the Angel on her shoulder scolding her strongly, rightfully plaguing her mind with immediate guilt.
But considering this boy was not her brother, Ito just sighed and turned back around to leave. She didn't have to fix this, she probably wouldn't even ever see him again. It'll just be another story that ended due to her inability to feel things in moderation and with balance.
She raised her hand halfway up to give an unenthusiastic wave as she walked away, not standing tall and proud at all.
"Don't worry 'bout it," she mumbled.
A slight shift could be heard from behind Ito, but she didn't think twice about it, eyes focused on the exit of the room.
But as the young boy unclasped his cheap plastic watch and gathered it up in his dominant hand, he felt fear and adrenaline creep into his heart in the seconds before testing his best theory.
"I meant sorry about this.."
His lowly words were barely half heard and not at all registering in Ito's glitching brain. So much so that she wasn't going to stop moving or respond anymore.
But that all changed when the obnoxious blue flashing siren in her head struck once more, ringing through her entire now alert body.
Within milliseconds— the sixth sense took over.
Ito whipped around with her right hand raised and caught a small flying object right in the nick of time. She stopped the watch from hurling into the center of her face, at the price of a telling blue light sparking out from the contact with her helpful hand.
With such a sharp inhale that it hurt her lungs and every other aching part of her, she exhaled just as fast. Breathing fast and unevenly from the unexpected attack, the only other sound to fill the room was the painfully corny recorded catchphrases coming from the watch that activated on impact.
'I am here!' malfunctioned out and repeated a good five times before Ito glared at the watch, making it flicker brightly before suddenly stopping.
Now lowering the unassuming weapon, with nothing else to stand between the mint haired mess of a boy and unstable Ito, she snapped again.
"What in the ACTUAL crap was that for?!"
"I knew it!!" he proudly pointed, ignoring her angry expression as long as possible. "I saw that— Ito something did happen!"
"Maybe yeah maybe no, but something is definitely about to happen," she threateningly shot back while cracking her neck from side to side.
He didn't move, standing his ground once again as she slowly stalked over. This would have surprised the reluctant hothead if she hadn't been seeing too much red to notice.
No, literally. She began seeing red, as in a haze of something akin to stained glass church windows glazed over her sight, changing her irises from closed off gray, to freshly painted firetruck red.
"I know you're mad at me but even more than that you're scared!"
His sudden burst of words made her stop in her tracks, those were the only two things she had been feeling all day, how'd he know?
"Terrified even," he continued, seeing she didn't punch him in the teeth when she got close enough to. "Because everything has changed for you, hasn't it? And you feel alone, like no matter what you do you won't be able to get ahold of this thing."
Her breath hitched in her throat, wanting nothing more than to sew a slew of colorful curses into the observant boy's skin. But before she could form a cohesive insult, Izuku kept yapping on.
"But I swear to you that you are not alone Ito! So please just tell me what happened and we can work this out, even if you don't think I'll be able to help I just—" he hesitated, looking down and breaking eye contact for the first time since he started this speech.
"I have to try, it's all my fault this is happening and I need to make it right. It's only fair: you helped me," he suddenly looked back up at her with the most serious, determined and yet, genuine smile she'd ever seen.
"Now I want to help you."
His emerald eyes held flecks of golden refractions that nearly demanded attention. But not in a tyrannical way, only in a way that begged you to listen for your own good.
Ito's lips parted while her eyebrows furrowed at the natural sincerity that emanated off of him so openly. It had been so long since she showed even a fragment of that fervent unfeigned care for someone she barely knows. Ito used to care about people a lot more, but now the weathered young woman almost always hid behind a blank face or a sarcastic quip.
Finally looking away with a defensive scoff, she stared at the half erased chalk writing on the blackboard with her arm crossed over her cast.
"How did you even know I was going to catch it?" she avoided answering, still holding onto the watch in her palm.
Midoriya, wrecked with the nerves he had to overcome each time he wanted to make a somewhat coherent sentence, breathed out a chuckle softer and lighter than a feather.
"Well I was trying to say it earlier when you cut me off," he paused, seeing her face twitch slightly, moving only her eyes to look at him.
"Ito... I think you have a quirk."
Her eyes widened slightly, knowing she had said and done way. Too. Much. And now only one thing ran through her panicking loner mind.
'Aw shi—'
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6:23 pm
july 7th
to be continued
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GUESS WHO'S BACK!!
after too many months of writers block and lack of inspiration to write, i'm so so glad to say it's meee :,)
i'm already writing the next chapter so i'll try to not disappear again LOL, but i do hope this chapter at least somewhat made up for the wait!
lmk your fav part/if you have any theories on how you think the rest of this day is gonna go down hehe
that's all for now, please take care of yourselves and have a great day/night <3
till next time :D
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⚠︎︎ 𝘼𝙈𝘽𝙀𝙍 𝘼𝙇𝙀𝙍𝙏 ⚠︎
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♥︎ 3113 words, end of chapter ♥︎
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