Kitty-Kitty Cat-Cat (IzukuxMandalay)

23: A Needed Rest

"-riya....Midoriya..... MIDORIYA!"

Midoriya gasped as his world suddenly came back to him like a sucker punch, the pencil in his hand feeling like a real pencil in his hand with his astral form slamming back into his physical body that was seated at his desk. Tearing his focus away from the blank spot on the wall beside him the student looked around his class to see that practically the entire roster was looking at him with slightly wide eyes of confusion and wonder, Midnight at the front of the class jutting her hips out to her left with a flogger clutched in the middle of her crossed arms. "U-Uh yes, S-Sensei?"

"Would you like to join the rest of the class in learning the material that we're supposed to be learning?" Midnight asked. "Or are you going to continue staring at the same spot on the wall for the remainder of the period and miss out on what you need to know? Because if that's what you choose I wouldn't care, it's not my grade being impacted after all it's yours."

"S-Sorry Midnight-sensei. I just got lost in something."

"Well do yourself a favor and get lost in it some other time, pay attention please. Now, as I was saying, since the subject of this class is Modern Hero Art History the writer has no clue on what to even put here so because of that-"

Midnight blabbered, and blabbered, and blabbered away about the seemingly endless portion of the material as Midoriya sighed and went to work in catching up all that he's missed during her lecture. To his own surprise majority of the page's worth of material was missed in his temporary separation from the present, leading to him quickly jotting down the notes into his pad in order to catch up with the others. This wasn't the first time this has occurred, not even close. And if anybody had the Quirk to take his thoughts and form a picture with them each and every instance of him losing himself to the train of thought would be the exact same.

Eri.

For every day since the conference after he and Mandalay's encounter with the little girl, it was difficult for Midoriya to not think about anything that didn't have white hair, a horn and red eyes. How he wished things played out differently during that encounter, how he wished things would be so different than the way they are now. But so much as he wished for his wish of a different scenario to come true, he could only continue to dream that it would ever become true. SHOULD, that scenario have played out differently than the way it did? And if it did, what were the consequences of their actions? How many people would have died or been injured because of their decision to instead take Eri with them instead of giving her back to Overhaul? The answer to that question, he'll never know.

Though his mind hangs in the balance of whether it was a good thing to know or a bad thing not to know. With the speed of his Full Cowling he easily could have taken Eri and scurried off to safety, but that would mean Mandalay is left behind with Overhaul and he'd rather be condemned to purgatory than to leave his love in the presence of somebody dangerous. An alternative option would have been for Mandalay to take the child instead and leave Midoriya to face off against Overhaul, but then that brings about the risk of him dying or severely injured in his effort to fend off the Yakuza boss. Was that the best outcome he could hope for? Stay behind and deal with Overhaul knowing he could die in the process? As a hero he doesn't have much of an issue with the idea but as a boyfriend, he wouldn't want to think about the pain that would come to Mandalay due to his loss.

The waiting game is a game that Midoriya has already had slight quarrel with in the past, but now when it came to the chance of Eri further being abused by her "father" who might not even be her father, it tore him apart from the inside out. Day after day night after night he waited and waited with his phone close by hoping that the call to take action would arrive, the weight of the anxious urge to move was drilling into his skull and causing him to constantly lose himself in his thoughts. If he felt this bad about it, he couldn't possibly know how bad Mandalay must feel about it.