Just A Myth | Shota Aizawa

Chapter 34

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Third person pov

Kurogiri realizes Tomura Shigaraki is crying with a jolt that almost makes him drop the glass he's in the process of polishing.

They were set up at the bar, the UA Sports Festival playing on the TV mounted overhead. Tomura had been invested from the very start, which Kurogiri hadn't seen as odd. It was a grand chance to examine the abilities of their opponents and chosen targets. Sensei had strongly encouraged the young man to get to know the competition, promising to call back and ask if Tomura had noticed anything of note later. The reassurances the powerful villain gave sent shivers down Kurogiri's spine. They were not genuine in the least, and they brought an ill feeling to the pit of his stomach.

But now Tomura Shigaraki is crying. Tears tore down his cheeks, gushing from his wide, red eyes. The black invading his roots had spread since their last trip to the beach, and it seems to be spreading as they speak for unknown reasons. Tomura is leaning forward intently, upper body propped on the counter and gaze trained on the fight between Izuku Midoriya and a general education student Kurogiri doesn't recognize. The warp gate user could not see why he would be so agitated. He panicked momentarily, scrambling for words. Tomura didn't cry. He simply didn't.

"Tomura Shigaraki." His voice came out more strangled than he'd care to admit. The light blue-- black?-- haired man didn't turn away, refusing to remove his utmost attention from the standoff before him. Kurogiri's yellow eyes shifted to the screen as the purple haired child was grabbed by the meddlesome freckled one they'd seen at the USJ. Tomura has been a little twitchy throughout the whole event's screening, but this reaction is too severe to ignore. "Are you... alright?"

At first he only gets a shuddering inhale in response which does not instill him with any confidence. Kurogiri watches intently, holding his breath and waiting to see what the young man will do. This has never happened before. Is it his fault? He knows taking him to the sea has done something. He's been different since then, but this is a whole new realm of odd that Kurogiri cannot categorize. Crying. He is crying, and he's crying hard.

He doesn't look angry or sad or hurt, and his breathing isn't stuttered out into sobs. The expression on his face is one of focused surprise and perhaps... longing? The same glint he got when he looked in the mirror at his darkening hair was present, bright and bold. Recognition, Kurogiri realizes. His eyes flit to the screen, to Izuku Midoriya. This did not happen at the USJ. Did the sea do something?

"I... I..." Tomura croaks out, sounding impossibly vulnerable. Kurogiri swallows heavily, not sure what to do.

"We can turn it off if it is upsetting you, Tomura Shigaraki. It will be easy to access online at a later date." Kurogiri says, though he knows such an offer is risky. There's no telling when Sensei will call back to ask about what Tomura had observed, and he'll want a truthful answer if he happens to ask why they didn't watch it all the way through. However, Kurogiri can't sit here and watch him cry like this. It makes his heart ache, and he wishes he were better at this. Maybe then he'd be able to help more.

"No! No." Tomura shakes his head rapidly at the proposition, still staring at the screen. There's something reverent and awed in his tone now, an odd expression taking root on his face. Like something in him is settling. Kurogiri isn't sure if he should be scared or relieved. He thinks he's a bit of both at the moment. "I just... I-I know... I know him. I feel like I know him, Kurogiri, but I can't... I can't remember."  

He seems agitated that he can't recall, and Kurogiri almost expects him to start scratching his neck from the tension in his tone. Yet, he does not. He simply sits, still staring, still crying.