Total Command

Chapter 49: A man that studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green

Time seemed to stand still as he silently took his seat next to Katsumi and Momo, staring at the newscast as if it was going to answer all the questions swimming through his mind. He began tapping his foot on the side of the couch to try and calm his speeding thoughts.

"She didn't tell any of us..." Ochako mumbled, Mei holding her hand to give her some support.

Honestly, Izuku would've been proud of her if he wasn't busy trying to figure out what to do.

"...Exactly. We can't talk about it if she doesn't even fucking tell us," Katsumi muttered, huffing just under her breath.

Izuku nodded slowly. "It was her choice, we can't act on what we got from the news..." He ran his hand through his hair. "But I don't like it."

"None of us do," Mei huffed, her usual smile missing.

"Maybe— maybe we should just talk?" Momo offered "...I for one wouldn't want to be alone with this."

"Yeah!" Hana piped up. "We can't just stand by and do nothing !" Izuku could see that she was beating herself over about the comment she'd made when Tomoyo had left their classroom suddenly.

Izuku felt Shoko's warm hand on his back. "...Maybe they're right? ...I didn't mind you barging into my situation."

Izuku didn't look back to confirm, but he could tell she had a ghost of a smile on her face. The warmth radiating from her hand was comforting, making him even more sure that his interference was a good decision.

"I... but Shoko, you opened up to me first," he muttered, low enough for just her, Katsumi, and Momo to hear. "It's... not the same. I can't just barge into..." he trailed off, focusing on the screen.

A hero being forced to retire was, with all things said, a common thing.

Izuku never imagined it happening to someone close to him, not so soon, nor to someone like Tomoyo.

God... I can't even imagine what's going through her mind...

"I—̤"̪ Nana started before growing quiet. "...it's like̝ ̰l̰o͢s̖i̺n̻g̞ s̮o̻meo͈ne, r̪i̬gh̟t?͈"

"W̘hy does̘ ̼tha̲t f͢e͍el s͓o fami̮li̥a͈r?̥"

You alright?

"Y̩-͉yea͚h,̞ I͕ ̩th̼i̥n̬k̘ s̹o̙.͟"

"Izuku?" Katsumi's hand was on his shoulder, shaking him lightly. "You zoned out there."

"Right, sorry, was thinking," he muttered back, slowly realizing everyone was looking at him.

"Is there a problem?" he asked shyly.

"...You're the class rep." Mina shrugged. "Plus' you always have a plan. We just kinda assumed you'd have a plan to... 'fix' this."

He blinked. Who knew being the student representative would have given him this much of a leadership role?

"Uh̟... ͇an̰yone?"̮

...Fair.

A shaky breath passed her lips as Tomoyo pulled open one of the large doors at the entrance of her sister's hero agency...

Former agency...

She greeted by an empty, unsettling atmosphere, the usual hustle and bustle missing as the empty halls were causing her subconscious to scream that there was something wrong.

Her jaw clenched and she trudged on.

Previous visits to this building had always filled the blue-haired woman with pride; pride in the work her sister did on a daily basis to make the city, no, the whole world, a safer place. The sidekicks, the secretaries, even the maintenance staff... everyone looked up to the shining pillar of justice that was Ingenium.