I blink myself awake after my most recent meeting with Receptionist - who I really haven't been visiting as often as I should be lately - fully expecting that I would need to claw my way through however many feet of dirt I'd been buried under after my most recent death. So, imagine my surprise when instead of darkness, I'm treated to the same sight that greeted me after my stint at the Sports Festival. That being a number of the heroes who are part of UA's staff standing around in one of UA's medical rooms in quiet conversation with each other, albeit, this time I'm uninjured.
Which is honestly much, much more concerning than when it happened the first time since it means that they know I can come back to life! And given how few people are aware of this little factoid about me…
"So," I say conversationally, causing most of them to jump in surprise and whip their heads around to stare at me with wide eyes, "am I grounding Himi or Eri?"
Nezu lets out a lighthearted chuckle without taking his beady eyes off of me. I wonder if this is how he felt when the scientists who were experimenting on him looked at the mammal? "It was Miss Toga who informed us of your 'quirk'," he puts a weird twist of emphasis on the word, like he disagrees with calling it that. Which is fair considering just how utterly strange coming back from the dead is. "Though in her defense, she seemed rather agitated when it was mentioned your body would be cremated."
I hum in response, eyeing the mammal with a knowing look. "I don't doubt that she would be, considering she prefers that I have a body to cuddle her with."
Nezu's shoulders shift in a small shrug that could easily be mistaken for him just readjusting how his suit fits. "I personally do not see the appeal for such physical shows of affection, but I have often been remarked upon to be a rather unusual individual."
I nod agreeably. "Oh, that's clear to anyone who's spoken with you for any length of time. You are a being of logic, after all."
Though our words are casual, tension fills the room. Not from the assembled heroes - Midnight, Snipe, and Cementoss - but just between the two of us. Because he knew. Before Himi let it out, he knew that I could do something like this, or he at least had a strong suspicion of it. It's the only reason he would have had to bring up the fact that I would be cremated around her. The million yen question now is what he plans to do about it.
Not that that's the question I'm going to ask, of course. That would be much too predictable, and the key component of any kind of interaction with Nezu is chaos. It's the only way for someone to come out on top, throwing the unexpected at the rat any-which-way you can. "So, how were my injuries?"
His ear twitches but he doesn't otherwise react to the sudden shift in conversation as he lists off the damage with a clinically cold voice. "Second degree burns covering the majority of your front, most of the bones in your left arm were shattered, a myriad of cuts with wildly varying degrees of severity across your entire body, a cracked skull, and three impalements from various sources." He pauses for a moment as he glances at the other teachers, only one of whom seems uncomfortable with how bluntly he's talking about my death. Well, to be fair to Midnight, Snipe is wearing his mask and Cementoss kind of has one of those expressionless faces. "You died from a mix of blood loss and major organ damage."
I nod thoughtfully, reaching back to clasp my hands behind my head and look up at the ceiling. "Sounds about right. I'm guessing the rest of 1-A saw it happen?" It was supposed to be a learning experience for everyone, after all. Seeing what others did wrong and how they could improve and all that.
He doesn't even have the grace to look apologetic about his response. "Of course. It was rather traumatizing for them to see someone die for the first time. Even more so considering that they have all gotten to know you since you started attending the school. Why, Miss Yagi even passed out from the horror!" He is entirely too cheerful about delivering that bit of news for someone who is in charge of a high school.
I tilt my head and raise an eyebrow, deciding that we should address one of the two major points of what this meeting is undoubtedly about. "So, what's being done about Kachan?" No matter who is on his side, no matter what allowances are made for him, there is no doubt whatsoever that the blonde attacked me with the intention of ending my life. Heck, he succeeded in ending my life. If they try to wave it off as no harm no foul just because I came back I will seriously ask All For One to just nuke the stupid country to save the rest of the world from the utterly moronic genes here from infecting anywhere else, damn my game with Nezu.
"He'll be escorted to a juvenile detention center after he is discharged from the hospital," Nezu answers, and I honestly have to take a moment to process that. Because yes, that is absolutely where he should be, but since when has Kachan ever been truly punished for something? Yes, Shoko mentioned something about him and Izumi essentially being on probation while they're at UA, but Kachan has tried to attack me multiple times and nothing has been done about it. So for him to be punished so severely the first time I've ever seen it happen? Well, it's kind of surreal.
Several minutes of silence later, Midnight finally loses her patience. "Ok, can I just say; what the fuck!?" She points a shaky finger at me. "You were dead! Recovery Girl checked your pulse and couldn't find a heartbeat! Yet you're acting like that's normal!" Well, it is normal to me, but her rant is understandable. "And what the hell was up with all of the things that started coming out of you like you were a video game character dropping loot!? How does that work!?"
I perk up at the reminder. "Oh yeah! What happened to my stuff?"
Midnight just glares at me, leaving Snipe to answer, caution clear in his voice. "We stored the contraband in a secure location considering how… dangerous, a lot of it was."
I scowl at the man before shifting it to Nezu, knowing that there's no possibility that they'll be returning my weapons to me. There goes four knives, a gun, and two explosives. Oh well, I'll just ask Mei to make me things to replace them. It's not too big of a loss, but it's still annoying. Especially since I doubt I'll be able to get enough time away from people to dig out their hiding places inside my body again. So I guess I won't be able to get Mei to replace them. That's irritating.
Then again…
"So, what happens now?" I ask with a raised eyebrow. Nezu tilts his head at me with a questioning look, causing me to glare. "Don't play dumb, you're too smart for that. We both know that the Hero Commission will want to try and figure out a way to replicate what I can do. People like that are too attached to the power they hoard to be willing to just die when their time comes."
Nezu hums consideringly and nods almost absentmindedly. "That is true. If the Commission knew of your ability, there is no doubt that they would stop at nothing to try and replicate it." He stops talking then, and it takes a few moments before I realize what he's saying, causing me to scoff in derision.
"Do you really think that you'll be able to hide this from them? There's a reason they've managed to keep the power they've had for so long."
"My staff won't say a word," he says simply and I roll my eyes.
"And the students? You don't honestly believe that they aren't going to talk about it, do you? Doesn't matter if it's intentional or not, they're going to let it slip eventually. It's only a matter of 'when' instead of 'if'."
He nods. "They will. But whether or not the Commission believes the words of children prone to excitable bouts of imagination is another matter entirely. Even should they indeed believe that is your ability, so long as you are a student at UA they will not come after you."
"Awfully confident in your position, aren't you, Nezu?"
He bares his sharp teeth in a feral grin. "Why, of course! Mutually Assured Destruction is something that humans have become intimately familiar with long before the dawn of quirks, after all. And after that?" He chuckles. "Well, they came awfully close to putting it into action. It's only natural that they would develop a healthy fear of it."
I stare at him for a moment before chuckling, kicking one leg over the other as I smirk. "You know what, I think you actually can keep them at bay. The only problem with that is the fact that you think I'll always be a student here."
"Oh?" He asked with an amused tone. "Even with the threat of becoming the Commission's lab rat, you would still continue with our little game?"
I shrug dismissively. "As I recall, the only way for me to lose our game is if every member of the League of Villains is taken out of play. I find that to be rather unlikely."
"Because of All For One?"
I shake my head in denial. "Not at all, he's backing the LoV, but he's not a part of it. I doubt that he'll make a move himself. If Shigaraki gets caught, the man will probably contact him to tell him that he'll have to escape from wherever he gets put all on his own, but that's it. He's very hands off with us, which is ironic considering Shiggy's costume is nothing but hands." I shoot up into a cross-legged sitting position, leaning forward with my hands on my knees and ignoring the sudden hostility from the heroes who reacted to the sudden action.
"No, Nezu. I think it's unlikely that you'll take the whole League of play because you haven't even been able to find them. They haven't made a move to retrieve me yet and you haven't made a move to apprehend them." I throw my arms out at my sides to gesture towards all of UA. "You act confident because you've upgraded your security after the USJ, but you forget that the USJ only occurred because we beat it before." I tilt my head and give the rat a feral grin.
"What makes you think we can't do it again?"