Saving the Game

The USJ Incident (pt IV)

(S1 E13 - In Each of Our Hearts)

Glitch. Glitch.
"-make sure these dudes don't hurt anyone else." Kirishima says in a determined voice. I try my best to focus on what's happening in front of me.
Todoroki is saying something to Midoriya. I click the button on my mask one final time before I hit my limit. Any more and I'll be rendered completely numb.
Suddenly Kiri shouts "Woah! Midoriya!"
Deku in question is flying through the air at crusty dude, who was apparently trying to attack All Might.
"Don't you touch All Might! You stupid villian!" He yells, but Kurogiri had expanded sometime in the last couple seconds. Bakugo had appeared too, on the opposite side.
Crusty villian is reaching for Midoriya's face, and I forget how to breathe. There's no way he'll make it out in time.
Then a gunshot rings out.
"They're here."

A group of pro heroes is standing at the entrance of the USJ. Iida is triumphantly standing with them.
I choke out a breathe, remembering that I have to breathe in order to live, missing whatever words he says next. The villians rush at the new threat, and the fight back begins.
"Aw, man." Crusty says unhappily. "The pros are here. It's game over. For real. Let's go home and try this when we can--"
He gets cut off by another gunshot. Kurogiri wraps his voidlike aura around him.
From behind us, they start to get sucked up into something.. Black hole. Thirteen's quirk.
But it's too late.
They vanish into the portal.
I stare at my surroundings. Is this what pros deal with? Every day? I look down at my hands, embarrassed, and then.. upset. Angry at myself. There are plenty of other people who did more then I did today. Were worth more in their team. It wasn't enough.
No. No. It's okay.
I did what I could. I'm still new at this.  Although that won't shake the feeling of guilt from my heart. 
I glance at Kirishima and Bakugo, and Midoriya, who'd jumped in front of a villian so recklessly like that. We were at the center of the chaos. We did help, in some ways.

"The villians attacked this facility, but not the rest of the campus." Todoroki says from nearby.
"Midoriya, hey!" Kirishima yells, going to check on him. He'd thrown a punch and it looks like his legs are broken from it. I empathize. Having a quirk that is simultaneously working against you just as much as it works with you is not fun.
"Sorry, I can't get up." Midoriya says. I manage to shake the numbness off and go towards to him along with Kiri.
"What? are you okay?" He asks.
Midoriya seems to.. panic?
Glitch.
and then a giant wall seperates us from him and All Might.
"For your safety, please stay back, young man. Join your classmates at the front gate." Cementoss, the wall builder himself says.
"Leave the injured to us, we can take care of them."
"Oh, gotcha." Kiri says with a smile. "I'm on it!"
Just like that, he switches gears (haha, since his costume.. you know.. shoulders.. nevermind.)
and runs back towards the rest of us.
"Hey! He said for all of us to head to the entrance!"
Bakugo makes his now-token 'tch' sound and turns away, going first. Todoroki follows.
"Hey Hayashi, are you okay?" Kiri addresses me as I stand still, slightly tilted. "You're glitching a lot."
"Oh, y-" I was cut off by my left shoulder glitching out of place, silenced. He flinches at the sight. "Ooh, okay, that's a no. Here, I'll help you, okay?"
He carefully takes my arm and lets me use him as support as we head towards the rest of the class.

"..So the people you fought were also low-level thugs." Tokoyami says, as my shoulder finally glitches back into place. I'm between Kirishima and Kaminari as we talk about what just happened.
"Yeah, they messed with the wrong kids, huh?" Kiri says, punching his palm.
"Sure did!" Denki says, although he looks less-then-confident while saying it. I'm a little curious as to what happened wherever he landed, but it doesn't look like he's going to talk about it.
Everyone focuses as a detective explains the condition Aizawa is in currently. I'd seen what happened to him with the nomu thing.. Scary.
Thirteen and All Might will be okay.
"What about Deku?!" Ururaka interrupts.
"Midor- ah. Recovery girl is taking care of him, too. He's fine."
Iida and Ururaka breathe out sighs of relief.
"Oh, thank goodness."
"Now, let's get you back to class." The detective says.
I look back. Bakugo is standing and staring at the USJ building. I tug Kiri's arm and he turns.
"Oh- C'mon man, we're going back to class now!"
"Yeah, yeah, I heard him, ya idiot." Bakugo says in response.

We all walk back through the hallways, looking tired and worn out. Kiri's struck up a conversation with Denki, and shockingly enough, Bakugo was entertaining small talk with me.
"Hey loser, next time you take a break, got it?"
He interrupts me, looking me straight in the eye.
"I saw you freeze, and I watched your quirk stop working. You also clicked your mask again, after it seemed like you were avoiding doing that earlier."
"Oh. Yeah.. I'm sorry. I didn't want to slow you down." I say quietly, touching my mask.
"No excuses, this is one time only. Next time I catch you going over your limit while working with me I'll make you regret it." He replies, facing forward again as we walk.
I'm this close to making a sly remark about when I'm not working with him, but I refrain.

We start splitting off to the designated locker rooms when Kirishima comes up to me, seemingly done talking to Kaminari.
"Hey. Bakugo can be a little harsh. But I think he's trying to say that cares in his, uh.. own special way. Do you need to go see Recovery Girl too? Your shoulder looked bad earlier." He says, rubbing the back of his neck.
"I'm okay.. I think."
I need a refill, though. For my mask.
"Do you.. wanna see if Bakugo is free after we change? We could hang out at my place."
I ask timidly, adjusting my gloves. I touched the tips of my fingers together, the only part of my hands that were uncovered by them.
"Hey, that sounds fun. We could probably use a break after all that. Sure! I'll ask Bakugo when I go into the locker room." Kiri smiles brightly at me.
"Okay." I agree, smiling in return. We part ways and go change back into our regular clothes.

"No." I hear a growl as I slip my mask back over my face.
"C'mon, Bakubro. It'll be fun! We have the rest of the day off and you won't do anything with us?"
I peek around the corner and look at Kirishima and Bakugo arguing. Going over to them, I tilt my head at the crankier of the two. I know how to handle this.
"So.. you're scared of us getting to know you?"
Bakugo's attention turns to me as he glares daggers from his eyes to mine.
"No, you idiot, I have better things to do."
"Or.. you don't, and you're bad at lying."
Kirishima laughs a little beside me.
"Sounds like a challenge."
"Okay, fine, you damn loser. Shitty hair. I'll hang out with you. After I go home first. Deal?"
"Deal." I smile gleefully to myself and Kiri grins.
Guess I'll see them soon.