Blurred Lines | shouto.

[56]: Sink or Swim

ELEVEN DAYS LATER

You crouch perched on a high-rise building, still in the early stages of construction. You balanced on one single support beam, looking over the city with a flush of misery in your gaze. Your arms are resting on your knees as you breathe slowly.

It's dark. It's raining.

And, it's all incredibly disheartening.

You had never felt as alone as you did right now.

But, given the situation and the fact that you'd had countless hours over the last week to feel bad for yourself, the feelings had stopped hurting so much.

This was all your choice, anyway.

Your earlier fear and affliction had started morphing into blank numbness, as your body and mind slowly grew weaker.

You had been sleeping under the bridge, after creating a small area with a blanket you bought from a thrift store. A week ago, you had also thrown your phone into the nearby river in case anyone tried tracking you down that route.

You were dirty, tired and hungry.

You could barely feel anything else anymore.

Mentally, you were completely absent. Your eyes were swollen and dark circles sat under them, amplified by the dirt on your face.

The rain that started since the day you left had still not stopped.

It beat down mercilessly, day and night, making your living conditions much harder to bare as you were without shelter. It didn't look like it was going to cease anytime soon.

But you were managing.

Handling yourself, despite how hard it all was.

You had been considering lots of options, over the last week especially.

How could you move forward? You certainly couldn't keep up this homeless, jobless lifestyle forever.

The first option that you came up with was to track down the league yourself and get to them before they got to you. That way, with an ambush, you could fight them without the threat of the Nomu, and probably win. But, you had no idea how to start looking for them.

You also thought about leaving Japan all together. But, you didn't have the means necessary for something huge like that, like money, or resources or connections. Plus, you weren't comfortable leaving everyone at U-A completely unguarded so suddenly. Sure, the heroes could take care of them, but you still wanted to stay close by in case they ever needed you.

In case Ochaco ever wants to tell you about how much she likes Midoriya, or Bakugou ever needs someone to rough him up, or or Mina needs to cry, or Shouji wants someone to train with again.

Or in case Shouto ever needs someone to make him feel validated.

You couldn't leave forever.

But, for now.

So that gave you only one option, and it was to keep hidden.

To remain in the surrounding neighbourhoods and parks, to only move around at night, keep yourself hard to recognise with clothes and masks, and cover your tracks wherever you go.

Your main rule to follow: was not to stay in one place too long. And, so far, that had been working best, although the strain and weight of it all was starting to overwhelm you, you stayed strong.

You had no choice.

Life or death.

Sink or swim.