Cubicity

Chapter 44: Changing Perspective

An alarm echoed throughout the dark room. A long groan at almost the same intensity followed. The source of the alarm, a phone, was then turned off. Its owner proceeded to toss and turn in their bed in frustration. After a few moments more of flailing to no purpose did they finally stop. The person exited their bed slowly and soon found themselves in the bathroom. They turned on the light, revealing a headless form in the mirror.

Tooru stared back into her nothingness. Well, her gray shirt showed up in the mirror, but the point still stood. She soon sighed and reached out to grab a bottle of pills. After taking two, she grabbed a pipette to moisturize her eyes. From there, Hagakure brushed her teeth before leaving her bathroom to get dressed. Standard school uniform, though she decided to wear some orange snap bracelets today. Once grabbing her phone, she made her way downstairs.

The dorm common room was empty, minus Sato, who was standing in the kitchen. He was leaning back against the counter and, at his right, a coffee pot was brewing. The boy gave a weak wave and said, "Morning."

Tooru entered the kitchen and asked, "Trouble sleeping as well?"

"I had none to speak of. You?"

"Just the last few hours. I was staring at the ceiling most of the night."

"I feel a lot of our classmates will be having similar issues with their sleep. So I decided to brew something special for anyone that wants a nice wake-up call."

The girl inspected the brewing coffee as she asked, "Special?"

Rikido sidestepped out of the way to show various ingredients that were behind him. "Turkish coffee with a robusta blend to maximize caffeine."

"Where'd you learn this?"

"Kendo-chan mentioned it to me once. I did a little research on it afterward, and this is my second go at it."

Hagakure then pondered. She wasn't much of a coffee drinker, but if she was going to be functional at all today, this did sound like the way to do it. "Sure, I'll take a cup."

"Just need a few more minutes." Sato then squinted his eyes before saying, "I came down early to brew this. What's your reasoning?"

"Wanted to make breakfast in peace."

The boy closed his eyes as he stated, "Ah. There are a lot of questions to be asked of what happened concerning you since he is unconscious." He was quick to cough before saying, "Do not worry, I won't bug you. Whatever it is, it's not important right now; this isn't the time."

"I appreciate it. I'm just dreading today, though."

"I feel we all are. Though more the future to be more specific."

Tooru couldn't argue against that. It had gone to all hell.

It all seemed weird from the start. A joint internship for the day? Between everyone in both class 1A and 1B? With a bunch of pro heroes?

Tooru's group provided assistance if needed to a raid on some mansion on the side of a mountain. Izuku's group was 80 kilometers away, doing the same to some general hospital. And both party's bit off more than they could chew. The former, a large underground plethora of villains related to the Deika City incident from December, and members from the League of Villains. The latter an army of nomus, their mad doctor creator, and the League's leader, now carrying a plethora of quirks outside just Decay.

Both battles were chaotic and bloody. Hagakure still couldn't get the image of Midnight's lifeless body out of her head. Even considering the deaths on their end, the death toll was much worse at the hospital. Tooru could only find solace that all her classmates were alive, but that was a hollow victory even then. Their homeroom teacher was missing a leg. Izuku and Katsuki were unconscious. Shoto, Fumikage, and Denki were awake but riddled with injuries. The mental state of the students was a whole different can of worms.