The Universe Listened | Kiribaku

Our minds are troubled by the emptiness

•Chapter Two•

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Public school was a shitshow. A wave of people crowding the halls, yelling over each other while trying to simultaneously push others out of their way. And the way gossip spread was like an out of control wildfire. It wasn't even noon before Kirishima had heard all sorts of bullshit involving the new kid, Katsuki Bakugou. In a small school of a little over four hundred kids, they'll grip onto any sort of news and spread it around so at least something "exciting" is happening in their rather dull school.

From what Kirishima was hearing from his yapping best friend Kaminari, the guy looked like a complete prick and complimented his jerk-like exterior by ignoring every single person who tried to be welcoming with an introduction. The only part Kirishima cared about was the fact that he danced, some people said he was even on T.V. at one point. He wondered if the guy was at the same competition he had just participated in over the weekend because that was aired across the country. Kirishima went to ask Kaminari if he knew, but he remembered his friend didn't have regular television and the person to the other side of him, Jirou wasn't into dance. Mina, however, would know because she was more than thrilled to discover her best was going to be displaying his talent for so many people to watch. But she was late to school, again.

"And I also heard that his mom-"

"Dude," Jirou scolded the blond firmly, "gossiping isn't an attractive trait at all."

Kaminari didn't stop though. He kept blabbering anyway and eventually Kirishima zoned out, letting himself be led through the sea of teenagers by his husky, Riot.

His class was a special one. He stayed in the same room with the same teacher every day and didn't rotate out to different rooms for each subject like those around him. The teachers wouldn't know how to teach him and he'd be left behind. It'll be easier this way, he was told, you're going to be learning at the same pace as everyone else but in order to do that, you need to be taught separately. He had wanted to argue with them, to tell them he'd much rather be taught with everyone else, like everyone else and be behind than be caught up and alone.

Isolating.

It was already made clear to the other students that he was different, his books were so much thicker than theirs and he did all his writing by computer. Riot was another clear indicator that he was different from everyone else. Even in elementary school, it was very prominent that he was an oddity. The brailler he had to carry around and the big, thick markers along with the cream coloured paper he had to write on when he was learning his letters wasn't like the things the children around him had. They had white lined paper, the kind that hurt his eyes, and the lead pencils that were too light for him to see. His classmates were always aware that there was something wrong with Kirishima and he couldn't stand it.

He simply wanted to feel normal.

During class, the creak of the door caught Kirishima's attention and while he pretended to be working on whatever he was assigned, the teacher had to give directions to a voice that sounded... annoyed. He assumed it was the new kid and that he got lost on his way to another class. The door slammed shut loudly, causing Kirishima to jump slightly.

He took note of that voice because it was one of the only ways he could distinguish between people. He wasn't entirely sure if he would ever really need to remember that voice for he wasn't sure if he'd ever come into contact with the owner of it, Katsuki, but he filed it away in his brain anyway.