Ten years before the manifestation of the first quirk, a glowing child from China, the world has undergone its first change.
Gates opening into various dungeons led to the surfacing of the primordial type of people, called Awakened, or Hunters, the...
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17一 your smile is like a thousand suns
༻𖥸༺
IZUKU WAS NERVOUS, HIS WHOLE BODY trembling at the thought of what he had to face in just a few moments. Besides him, Mirio-senpai looked the complete opposite, fresh as a daisy yet still maintaining that air of seriousness around him. It was probably just the difference in experience talking, given the two years between them, but Midoriya would have given a finger to have that relaxed confidence about him right now. Intellectually he knew, somewhere in the back of his brain, that his upperclassman was just as anxious about this situation as he was.
Aizawa-sensei had delivered the news with his usual no-nonsense tone, fast as a bullet as he ripped the bandage off without so much as a 'by your will'. ("Eri will be attending the cultural festival with her guardian. If you want to talk to her before that come to the principal's office at lunchtime.") And so here they were, standing outside Nezu-san's office, waiting to be let in any moment now.
Izuku couldn't stop the thoughts from swimming in his mind even if he wanted to. They whizzed by so fast, giving him a hard time even catching hold of them and focusing on a single one. It felt as if his own brain wanted him to fail, but as the lock of the double doors leading to the principal's office clicked open, he took in a fortifying breath and trudged on.
With shaky hands he traded a nervous look with his senpai and pushed open the door.
At first he didn't notice her, his eyes attracted by the pair of massive red wings that could belong to only one person, but before his fanboy tendencies could kick in, he saw her. She was as small as before, but the air around her was different, a sort of peace having taken over her soul. Eri stood there, dressed in a navy blue dress with purple frills and bows, white socks with blueberry patterns and black loafers, her stark while hair put up in two braids, an impressive number of butterflies braided through.
She looked like a doll, with her big red eyes and swinging her feet back and forth on the couch, one hand holding a candied apple while the other combed through the black fur of the dog sitting beside her. There was this一shall he say一quiet happiness about her face, not quite bursting forth from her placid expression, but present nonetheless. But seeing her, healed, well-fed and clothed in proper clothes, content with life, so very different to the last time he had seen her (walking away hand-in-hand with her captor just to protect him, obviously terrified but oh so brave), it brought tears to his eyes.
Soon he was hiding his face in his arms, the rivers of tears inherited from his mother coursing over his face as he could no longer hold it in. It hurt, both in a good and bad way, to see her. He was so happy she was safe and evidently cared for, but a small part of his soul said "it wasn't you who saved her, you failed" stabbed through his heart.
"Ano ne, Kei-san... Are they okay?"
A laugh, warm and amused, overlapping over the sound of walking. "Don't worry Ri-chan. They're just happy to see you."
