Dynamite And A Laserbeam - Redux

Vol 7 - 5: Dorm Life? New Classes!? What?! - Part 4

[Dorm Life, New Classes, What – Part 4]

The hall was silent. A tense, brutal air hung within the room. It was so quiet, that Yoshihara could hear the air conditioner switch on and off, as well as the shuffling footsteps in the upper halls just above them. If she focused hard enough, she would probably be able to hear the chirping of birds, leaves rustling, and gravel crunching just outside of the walls.

But that wasn't what she was focused on. She wasn't focused on her surroundings. There was only one thing that Yoshihara was focused on. And it was right in front of her.

Yoshihara stared at her father with emotions she hadn't yet felt before, outside of the obvious fury that burned deep in her heart. This man... her father... Yoshimura Sugimoto. He was the person who could've turned her life around had he been in her life from the start.

Instead, he had disappeared and was supposed to be dead. But then, out of nowhere, as if he hadn't been dead and had been there the entire time, he just... showed up, out of nowhere. There was no warning, and he didn't even have the guts to say "hello" to her. He just... appeared. Like a ghost fading in and out of existence.

This man... her father... a man who had practically abandoned her and Yoshikawa, driving her into the monster she became—because Yoshihara knew deep down that it was his fault—was now standing before her and to make things even more insulting, he had his back to her.

A part of Yoshihara wanted to attack the man. To hurt him in a way that he'd remember for all of his life and afterlife. To make him feel the pain that she felt—that she knew he had to have felt through the connection they shared as father and daughter.

She wanted to make him hurt.

She wanted to make him suffer.

And yet, she couldn't bring herself to. She couldn't bring herself to summon her Stand and punch him in the back of the head, just as she had envisioned so clearly in her mind. Her body, her soul, it physically wouldn't let her. It was as if Killer Queen was refusing to act upon its user's will, almost as if deep down in her heart of hearts, she knew that she couldn't bring herself to hurt him. Not because he was stronger than her, or because of some sort of ability that was placed on her. But because of one simple reason.

If she attacked him. If she cursed him out. If she cast him away as if he was nothing but a dirty leaf on her shoe, then she would be blaming an innocent man for the abuse that had been afflicted onto her by some crazy bitch that had lost her mind. And that made her even angrier. Not at her father, but at herself. Because in that moment of self-reflection, she realized something that hurt her more than just her father's reappearance.

Yoshihara thought she had changed. She thought that deep down after she had gone through so much, after she had gone through the roller coaster of emotions that was her first two months at U.A. High, after getting a boyfriend that, maybe, just maybe, she had changed.

That maybe, just maybe, she had stopped being her old, vindictive, hateful, violent self.

But if that series of thoughts taught her anything, it was that she was wrong. She hadn't changed. She simply buried her old ways, and swapped the old cold, calculating mask for a new, happier one, that was slowly cracking as the days went on.

The first crack came when Inko and Ida died.

The second crack came when Bakugo blamed her for everything.

The third crack came when her father reappeared.

She was close to snapping. She could feel it. If one more bad thing happened on par with any of those three things... she was going to lose it.