Mind Boggled

Chapter 9

Sorry for the lack of updates you guys! School is coming to a close so I've been hella busy, along with some personal issues and other unrelated school... events? Things? I'll try to keep up with the updates, yo.

Third person pov

Hitoshi Shinso's thoughts were oddly calm. The guy looked like he'd be more depressing, but he was relatively mellow despite his appearance. Harper just let it happen. Taking ice cream from strangers and then watching Star Wars with them wasn't something she really made a habit of, but today had been a long day. A long, long, long ass day. Harper was moments away from throwing the short list of things that were socially acceptable to do in a stranger's home and just taking a nap right then and there.

Her anxiety had taken a while to calm down. Just knowing she'd escaped from actual, real villains. True danger. All that shit. It was just... it was terrifying. Harper wasn't trying to be a wuss or anything like that. Really, she was trying to stick it out and toughen the hell up. It was just... her heart felt like it was going to burst out of her chest. It was like something had been wrapped around her upper chest and tightened, making it horribly hard to breathe.

"She was definitely running from something, but what? Maybe she's being bullied? No, that doesn't quite make sense. People in the hero course... is she in the hero course? That's definitely a UA uniform... even with the sweat pants. Not going to comment on that again. She seemed defensive." Hitoshi's thoughts wandered. Harper ignored them expertly, wondering is it was about time she headed off to UA. No doubt Tsukauchi was losing his shit. Harper contemplated getting him a gift on the way. To welcome him into fatherhood. 

Harper grumbled and checked the time. It had been about two hours now, and she had sixteen missed calls from the principal and twenty from Inspector Gadget himself. Harper hadn't put her mind walls up or anything. She was an idiot, but not a complete moron. The brunette had been keeping her quirk open and reaching in search of Kurogiri and Shigaraki. She stretched it beyond its limits, which earned her a nasty headache in return, but she'd had worse. She wondered if Shinso wanted to know his neighbor had a crush on him. Probably not.

"I've got to go." Harper sighed. Before they wrote her off as dead or something like that. Hitoshi's gaze drifted to her as she stood, stretching her arms above her head. He winced as her back gave a loud crack that sounded both satisfying and horrifying at the same time. He distantly pondered asking if she needed to be walked to wherever she was going, or if she was going to be alright getting there, but ultimately decided that he was in no place to be asking questions. He was the one who'd invited her in here, not the other way around.

"See you later, then." Shinso nodded to her as she set the empty tub of ice cream on the coffee table, his purple eyes following her as she shuffled towards the door. The exhausted girl cracked her neck just as she disappeared around the corner and into the entry way. Hitoshi really didn't like people all that much, as most were relatively revolting, but he couldn't help but find that just a little badass. "Just what has this chick been through? She looks like shit and isn't even fazed." 

Harper snorted at the boy's thoughts as she stepped out onto the street, pleased when she immediately recognized the neighborhood. UA wasn't far at all. That was a good thing seeing as the last thing she felt like doing at the moment was walking. The sun was, luckily, beginning to set, so her eyes didn't take too much damage as she stepped out of Shinso's dimly lit home and onto the porch outside. 

Warily, Harper set off towards the school. Her life was so fucked. Her parents were going to realize something was wrong eventually, and just how was she supposed to explain this shit show to them? It was going to be a huge let down for them to know that Harper hadn't gotten into UA because she had potential. That their weird, disappointing daughter didn't have some hope of ever being something. That it was simply her quirk UA wanted, for a specific purpose. It was all a lucky coincidence. One that wasn't working out so well in her favor thus far.