The Future Firecracker

64 | STANDSTILL

CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR
'standstill'

I told your boyfriend I'd keep an eye on you.
You're only a teenager after all.

No one at this age should be treated the way you're being used by the government. Although you did this by choice, it's also been one of the most heroic things I've seen anyone do.

I can relate to you more than you'd ever know.
I wanted to rescue more people at this age too.

But now I'm just in a cage, struggling to fly free.

You're in a tank, struggling to find the air to breathe.

Heroes will always be in the same boat.
The weight on our shoulders making us all sink into the dark abyss of our minds.

We can't save everyone.
Not even ourselves.
Not when times are like this.

You just haven't realised it yet, Sasaki [name].
You can't be a hero in a corrupt society.

—

Nabu is subtropical island, isolated with a population of around 1,000 living peacefully together. Summer still remained despite the winter season in the Japanese archipelagos.

Class 1-A gleefully bounced off the ferry and onto the harbour's docks. Waving their maps in the air and putting their sunglasses over their faces, they gathered around the representatives for a register and bag check.

Iida held onto the sheet of paper with a list of everyone's names and the number of bags they all brought and asked each student one by one. When he looked at a particular student, his jaw dropped and he chocked on his own saliva in shock. "K-Kaminari-kun... you're sunburnt... already..."

"I know!" He whined, dropping to his knees, "it hurts!"

Behind him, Kirishima and Katsuki blinked blankly at their friend, the former chuckling lightly and handed him some aloe and sunscreen— and whatever else he could possibly need. He also handed Katsuki a few bills. "Gosh... I didn't think it would be this quick."

"Told you I'd win," he mumbled, walking by everyone while hold up two fingers as a signal to Iida to let him know he had all of his bags. "Don't get lost. I want to get started and blow up villains already."

His two friends turned to him, shaking their heads. "There aren't any villains here, Kacchan," Kaminari said, wiping his eyes. "Aizawa told us, remember?"

"Tch. We'll see," he muttered. Katsuki decided to go off to the hero office where they were staying, alone and in silence.

Despite not wanting to think about you, the scenery around him made him question if you'd ever seen the ocean as clear as this one before. Maybe you have, maybe you haven't, you were going here regardless. He was still holding onto the idea that you were coming, that you were still living.

Somehow, his mind and heart was just purely sick, driving him nuts without your presence nearby.

His head tilted up to the sun, wondering to himself if you were looking at it, wishing you and Katsuro were with him too.