Fresh Start!

Chapter 3 (A Hero)

Before he entered, the nurse knocked. "Visitors," he said as he opened the door, and Inko and a miniature male version of her entered. 'He appears to be younger than me.' Kokichi mused. 'Fourteen, maybe fifteen?' Inko unknowingly snapped him out of his daze when she started speaking.

"Good evening, Kokichi." She smiled politely at him. "Good evening, Obasan," Kokichi said in response. Kokich shifted his gaze to the other male in the room. The nurse has long since left. Inko must have noticed because she introduced the male right away. "Ah. This is my son, Izuku."

"Ni-ce to meet you." Kokich stammered out. "Ah! Yes, nice to meet you as well!" He appeared stiff and nervous, Kokichi noted. "The food, Izuku." His mother said. He must have forgotten about it because his gaze snapped down to the bag he was holding. "Oh right, here!" He placed the bag on the table. The food had a pleasant aroma emanating from it.

Kokich grabbed it and placed it on his lap. "W-what is it?" He asked "Yakimeshi." Inko replied. "Hmmm." He nodded. "Tha-nk you." smiled

~

"Did you hear?" Rantaro inquired as he placed his tray on the table. "About what?" Kokichi questioned. "There's a rumor that the 'Number One Hero' is coming to visit." Angie sighed and rolled her eyes. "Really, of all people, why him?"

"He makes me nauseous." Miu laid her head down on the table and moaned. She cocked her head to look at Kokichi's tray. " Do you plan to eat that?" Her voice sounded hoarse. Kokichi knew better than to let his eyes wander down to where the scar on her neck was.

A couple of days ago, when they all happened to run into each other, they made a silent agreement. None of them mentioned what unfolded during the game. They all suffered in some way, and though most of it was healed, that didn't mean there wasn't any scarring. Just like Miu, Angie's voice was hoarse, and she had a scar on her throat. Rantaro suffered from horrible migraines.

"Eyes up here, dweeb." Miu remarked impatiently. Kokichi's eyes quickly snapped up to meet hers. "Yes, you can ha-ve it." He stammered out his response. Without any hesitation, she swiped the crackers off his tray. "Anyways, Kokichi?" He turned to look at the darker-skinned girl. "Hmm?"A sly grin spread across her face. "Have you talked to your darling Shumai yet?" She teased. Miu chimed in. "No, they're both being wussies and avoiding each other." Kokichi's whole face was set ablaze.

Rantaro also spoke up. "Oh, but aren't you two one of the few who had a pre-game relationship?" Kokichi chose to remain silent and continued to play with his food. "You make it so-und like we were da-ting." Angie furrowed her brow. "You weren't?" He shook his head. "Really!? With all the bonus events they had you two doing, everyone assumed you were dating!" Rantaro exclaimed. "Dang, they made you two fanservice!"

Kokichi choked on his food. The group cracked up at his expense. "Shut up!"

 ~

Everyone had gathered in the cafeteria. "Thank you everyone for coming!" The government official greeted. "We have a special guest visiting you today." The audience murmured among themselves. "Please give a big round of applause to our Number One Hero, All Might!" The room was silent as All Might walked on stage. The government official coughed awkwardly and tried again. "I said please give a round of applause for our Number One Hero, All Might!"

The official was met with silence once more. All Might shifted awkwardly in response to all the unimpressed looks he was getting. He grabbed the microphone that the official had hurriedly handed him. "Good afternoon, everybody." There was no response. "Tough crowd." He attempted to pull a laugh from them, but was met with silence.

"Uhm, anyways, I know readjusting has been difficult-" A snort could be heard. "But trust that things will get better." All Might kept going. "As if," a random student said. All Might furrowed his brow and continued to go on about God knows what. The crowd was getting angsty.

"How could you have even allowed this to happen in the first place!" An audience member who had grown tired of the man's nonsense yelled. "There are over 5,000 people in this faculty alone! How do you manage to miss so many people!" A large number of people agreed.

"How could you have allowed such a game to exist in the first place!"

"Can we really rely on heroes?"

"I never trusted them in the first place!"

The cafeteria was filled with incoherent screams and shouts.

The screaming quickly turned to booing.

All Might was stunned. Never in his whole hero career had he been escorted out of an event for his own safety.