Chapter 37: Chapter 37: Face the Music; Crazy Man's Plan
Recap:
Suijin walked effortlessly through the doors he used to gawk at and up the stairs. Freshmen busted about, the common topic of discussion being the upcoming sports festival.
'Haiz. I need to find Shoji; I want to train, especially in close combat. I only won last time due to their idiocy and surprise. We should also see if Kirishima and Mi-....Yuga want to pair up together so we can train chemistry.'
"Suijin!"
A voice the boy didn't want to hear came from the other end of the hall.
He consequently sped up, acting as if he heard nothing but out of a classroom in front of him, a group of boys blocking his path momentarily.
Mina, using the chance, sped up and grabbed his shoulder.
"Sui–Ha–Jin."
'Damn.'
Look, can we pleas-"
*RING*
The blaring bells signaling the start of class sent the group hustling back into their classroom.
Ah, that's the bell; we should head to class."
The boy then moved his shoulder, escaping her light grip, and escaped into their class, which was unsurprisingly lacking a leading figure and had Ida shout at the trouble crowd.
He cleared his bag from his desk and took out any books for the later classes today.
'That was dumb.'
'I know.'
'She must have been hurt.'
'I know.'
'Then why'd you do it.'
'You know.'
Suijin's mental battle raged as he split into two parts of himself: the half that wants everything to go back to normal and the half that feels too responsible to let it.
'We hurt her.'
'She was hurt back then as well; just add it to the pile. Just more drive to make the apology even better.'
'So you don't feel remorse.'
'It's not tha-'
'Then tell me what you THINK SHOULD BE DONE.'
'We should distance ourselves…BUT we should tell her that we are. Give a time limit so and remind her its not her fault.'
'How arrogant; our atonement is hurting her.'
'Attoning is the only way we can apologize.'
'Who said we had to.'
'We Did!'
"Morning."
In stepped their mummified teacher.
*Sigh*
'Sometimes I think I have a problem.'
____________________________________________________________________________
"AIZAWA SENSEI YOUR BACK!"
Sensei, are you alright!?"
"Can you really call that alright?"
Their teacher was shaking while walking towards his desk. Both hands in slings, and his entire head, besides one eye, covered.
"Don't concern yourselves with me; the battles are not over yet."
"EKKK!"
"More villains."
"Bring it on."
After a dramatic pause, he spoke,
"The UA Sports Festival."
Suijin tuned out most of the rest, it was just his teacher regurgitating information he already knew.
How important the event was, how big a chance this is, and what they could achieve during the event.
But one piece of information did catch his ear:
"This event has replaced the Olympics in Japan with the Sports Festival!"
'From what I read, that's an understatement; even countries from outside of this region, superpowers abroad in places like America and China, watch the festival, top-level people hoping to poach anybody who catches their eye.'
'It's even rumored All Might was one of those very talented students who went under everyone's radar originally, and he was poached by a famous American Billionaire who erased his past completely.'
Suijin became pumped up by his own thoughts, and his classmates mimicked his responses while listening to their teacher.
'I MUST SUCEED!'
'THIS IS MY CHANCE!'
'IT'S NOW OR NEVER!'
'To show my beautiful self to the world-'
'Lots of hot, fired-up girls~'
'MONEY!'
Of course, not everyone's thoughts ran concurrently, but in their own special way, everyone became excited for their upcoming future.
—Right after 2nd Period literature, in which a Cement Block hit them all in the face with his monotonous tone.
.
.
.
*Sigh*
Suijin stood up and stretched, trying to move his sore limbs after the snorefest they just had.
It was lunchtime, and even before the teacher could leave, most of the class ran out of the room. Even Tenya sped up his apology and left.
Turing around to assess the place, Suijin saw Mina glaring at the boy.
'No time like the present.'
*Sigh*
Suijin turned to his left and patted Tsu's seat while looking at his friend, whose angry expression turned elated as she practically skipped to the seat.
Then she turned to look at him while putting on a serious face.
"-Can I go first?"
She shut her mouth and wordlessly nodded.
"I need some distance from you—"
As he expected, she went wide before dropping down a bit. Hurt and Worry laced her face, which was trying to hide its expression.
Suijin's heart hurt, In that moment of vulnerability, the part of him that wanted to forget this stupid plan surged with strength.
But his resolve stood like an unbreakable wall, not even fading in an ounce of strength, blocking the rational and decision-making parts of his mind from being affected.
'No! I must do this.'
"It's not you…really."
Mina's features expressed confusion; if he didn't have a problem with her, then why…? The question wrote itself on her skin.
"During that incident—"
Her head registared his words, and her worries dissipated, replaced by anger, not only at the boy for their misunderstanding but at herself.
Her overreaction to the situation, her taking those negative thoughts and putting them on her best friend, caused this....She caused this.
"SUIJIN–"
Now it was her turn to want to explain, to want to yell at the foolish boy in front of her.
'It's not your fault.'
'You didn't do anything.'
'Please! Take that expression of self-hatred, one she, in her earlier years before she came to UA, knew all too well, off of your face.'
She came here to change, her wardrobe, outfits, and personality. She changed because she wanted to cast away her ugly past, not transfer the wounds onto someone she cared for.
But Suijin shook his head, denying her.
"I don't want that to be the version of me you think of. I don't want that to be how you recognize me. I don't want that to be me."
Hurt.
That's what Mina could make out from Suijin.
In all of their time together, it's been tough figuring out what he was thinking or feeling. During their free time, he would sometimes text her a picture, and she'd guess what expression he was trying to convey.
She even thought to herself and summarized that her lonely friend used that trait, which he conveyed to her once alienated him from society, to hide himself from everyone.
So she studied and spent hours of her time trying to learn about him. She didn't just want to be another superficial person who couldn't deduce what he was even feeling.
But she didn't focus on those additional thoughts, which may lead her down a new and exciting path of progression or downfall between the two.
She didn't even notice that this was the first time she accurately read Suijin.
Instead, she just wanted to give him a hug, like Kirishima did for her. She sensed that a hug was what he needed right now.
But the boy became the bane of her existence yet again.
He fixed himself, returning to that aloofness and stiffness that made it hard to read Suijin again.
He cleared his voice and stood up, now looking down at her.
"I just need some time; give me until the sports festival ends, alright."
Not waiting to hear her answer, he walked to the door with his lunchbag, which she knew for a fact held his smoothie of "death".
Courtesy of Kirishima, wanting a taste of the ultimate protein drink he had after one of their training sessions with All Might in his bag.
The boy opened the door and walked out into the empty hallway, leaving her to her thoughts.
'Coward.'
'You didn't even tell her the main reason for the long waiting time.'
'Because she'd disagree.'
'Yeah, there's no way she'd agree if she knew that we want to replace our image of that event, which should have left a huge impact, with another one.'
'But what if–'
'Not if—and WHEN we win that sports festival, we'll perform or do something crazy, something that will blow every bad image she had of us in her mind out of the water.'
A ruthless glint spread in the boy's eye, one not commonly seen on heroes.
'Sorry Classmates.'
He would win that sports festival.
..
Mina looked at where his classmate just was; warmth permeated through the seat and into the air.
That big loaf just had to go and misunderstand everything. She didn't miss the determined look he showed earlier when Sensei talked about the sports festival, there was no chance of persuading him out of this anymore.'
But her thoughts stopped when she caught something sticking out from the top of his desk—a green sticky note that wasn't there before.
{I know you didn't eat lunch, and I always pack a 'normal' protein shake since you fainted in class that one time from missing lunch. [Check Inside my Desk.]}
She followed the instructions, and lo and behold, her favorite Strawberry protein shake was there along with a straw.
Mina poked a hole in the top while opening the straw package. She didn't have the focus or the preferred amount of time to go and eat a proper lunch.
'Dummy.'
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone