Beyond the Stars (BNHA!Various x Genius!Reader) INDEFINITE HIATUS

21: The Practice of Not Giving a F***

When you returned to your seat next to Hitoshi, he asked if you were okay. You merely gave him a befuddled look. You were soon joined by Denki, who asked the same thing, much to Hitoshi's clear annoyance.

"I'm fine, I don't understand where your worries come from," you replied.

"I was there when Recovery Girl ran to check Uraraka," informed Denki as he leaned over Hitoshi and towards you. "Apparently, you fractured ten out of the fourteen bones in her face?!"

"Oh, that's surprising," you yawned.

Denki and Hitoshi gaped at you.

You tilted your head.

"You don't look the least bit surprised."

"Well, sorry if my facial expressions do not fit in under your neurotypical expectations, but I am surprised. I didn't expect her to be so delicate. Though, hm, thinking back, I did hear more cracks than I intended."

"...what?"

"Anyway, I'm sleepy so—"

"Wait, wait, wait, [Name]-san!" Denki clamped down on your shoulders before Hitoshi could stop him. "You're telling me that you're not bothered that you broke over half the bones in her face?"

"I overused my strength and she suffered the consequences, now I am here and ready for a nap, so no, 'bothered' is not the term I would use."

"Kitten." Hitoshi hauled Denki away by the collar. "Wasn't she your friend?"

You blinked. "She's not my friend."

He and Denki exchanged glances before looking back at you.

"You're telling us that you ... don't really care that you hurt her?"

"No." First of all, festival or not, it was still a battle. If she couldn't handle a few fractures now then she didn't deserve to stay in the hero course.

Sensing the unusual air, you reiterated, "I don't care, but you're free to care." You regarded Uraraka with as much affection as you would a used prophylactic on the side of the road, and while you couldn't understand why Denki would fuss over her wellbeing, considering you all barely knew each other, you weren't going to disrespect him if he worried over a fellow student.

Denki asked, "How can you not care?"

"With practice."

His jaw slackened. "You're joking."

"That is correct. It was my attempt to lighten the mood."

He let out a breath of what seemed to be relief and patted your head, or at least, he tried to, but Hitoshi smacked his hand away and glared at him. Denki just laughed and went back to his seat. "You have a unique sense of humor, [Name]-chan, I like that."

You yawned. That's right, it was a joke. You didn't need practice. Aside from a select few, you didn't care if the people here dropped dead right now. Thinking this, you leaned on Hitoshi and sucked on a peanut butter cup. You kept passing out between mock battles, while still managing to witness a few other combatants make a fool of themselves. (Tetsutetsu fought with Red-hair and lost, on his way to his chair, he bowed to you in apology, ranting about "how unmanly it was to be defeated when you worked so hard to get them to this stage." You told him it didn't matter, because you didn't really care whether he lost or won, though you didn't verbalize this part. He sobbed even fatter tears and called you an angel over and over again before Hitoshi dragged him away.)

At some point, you got up and went to the restroom, where you heard the sound of a girl crying.

Ignoring the noise, you headed for the first stall. Humans have a preference for "centrality" and so the middle stalls were the dirtiest.