Deep Red

9

I had some time off in the afternoon, which meant I could have an extended lunch break. I was half thinking of heading over to Aizawa's place, but I changed my mind. I'd go in the evening. At the moment I just really wanted to sit outside and enjoy the sun for a bit. I would have loads of time to spend with my cat later on.

Plus, while I was sitting outside eating my lunchbox, I could watch all the people coming and going. I had seen Aizawa head out a while ago with his class. They were on their way to the USJ to have rescue training with Thirteen. He had been on about not seeing Allmight all day. Funnily enough, just after they had left, I saw Allmight walking into school, completely exhausted.

It felt like almost no time had passed when my alarm went off, telling me it was time to get back inside, because I had another class to teach. I sighed melodramatically. The day was just way too nice to be spending it inside. If the security restrictions hadn't been tightened I'd have seen if I could have taken my class outside for the lesson. No one deserved to be inside on such a nice day.

I took a sip from my cup of coffee and grimaced when I realized it had gotten ice cold. Cold coffee had to be one of the most disgusting things in the whole world. Thankfully, my quirk was really helpful with things like that. I held my hand over the cup of coffee and soon had it boiling hot again. I took another sip and smiled contentedly. This was way better. Now I could get up and face another class.

I grabbed my things from around me and made my way back inside. I had to drop my lunchbox off at the staff room and get another coffee refill. I was only on my fourth cup today, because I hadn't felt as tired as usual.

Normally I'd be at least at my 6th cup of coffee for the day. Four was very little for me, even though I made sure to stop myself at ten cups. I knew anything more than 10 cups would probably kill me or make me feel very uncomfortable at least. I had done it a few times and that was enough for me to avoid it, if at all possible. To be honest, no one should be drinking 10 cups of coffee a day in the first place, but over the years I had just developed a very high tolerance for caffeine.

When I went into the staff room, I ran straight into Allmight, who looked pretty fuzzy about getting somewhere. I glanced at the clock at the wall. Was he still trying to get to the USJ to teach his class? That lesson would probably be almost over, once he got there, especially considering he didn't look like he was about to use his quirk and get there super fast. I quickly moved out of the way for him.

"Hi, Takahashi. Sorry, but I gotta run." he said to me.

"Hi, Allmight. Are you sure you wanna head over to the USJ now? I mean, the lesson's gonna be almost over by the time you get there." I replied. He shrugged and gave me a toothy smile.

"Yeah, I'll go there. I wanna show up for my students. Plus, how annoyed is Aizawa about this?" he wanted to know. I shrugged.

"Not sure. He seemed more annoyed than usual, but I've only known him for a week, so I'm not a great indicator for that." I answered.

"Well, wouldn't want to annoy him anymore. He'll be grumpy as it is. See ya around, Takahashi!" Allmight reasoned and gave me a short wave before he was on his way to the USJ.

I looked into the staff room, where I could only see Snipe and Principal Nezu. Both seemed quite busy doing some sort of preparation for their classes, so I figured I'd just quickly do what I came here for, before heading to the next classroom. I had class 2-C next and they had a pop quiz coming up that I still needed to make copies of. I quickly grabbed my bag from the chair and slung it over my shoulders. I packed my lunchbox away and went over to the coffee machine with the coffee mug.

"Miss Takahashi, how are you today?" I suddenly heard Nezu's voice. I turned around and smiled at him.

"I'm good. I got to see Cho again yesterday evening, so I'm quite happy about that." I told him while I was waiting for the coffee machine to get ready.

"I see, that's good to hear. How is your arrangement with Mr. Aizawa working?" he wanted to know. I shrugged.

"So far, so good, I suppose. I try not to be in his way too much, but Cho seems quite happy and I'm glad I get to see her." I replied and quickly pressed a few buttons on the coffee machine.

"Very good. Don't be misled by his strict mannerisms, he's very different once you get to know him a little better." he said and gave me a smile. Funnily enough, that was exactly the same thought process I went through every single time, I talked to Aizawa. He was scary, but then he just did or said something that was completely in contrast to his normal behaviour.

"Yeah, I suppose he comes across a lot harsher than he really is. Anyway, I'll have to go and make a few copies for my next class. I'll see you around." I answered and grabbed my now full coffee mug.

I made my way out of the teacher's lounge and over to the printer room next door. I sifted through my bag until I found the papers I needed to copy and I started making them. If there was one thing I really hated about my job, it was waiting for copies. It just took such an unreasonable amount of time to wait for them and you couldn't really do anything productive while you were waiting. Not that I would have done something productive, but I just resented the fact that the option wasn't even there.

When I was finally done with it, it was almost time to start the class. I swore under my breath, gathered up my copies and my coffee mug and quickly made my way to the classroom. Thankfully, I just had to wait for them to do the test and then we'd go through the introduction of our next topic. Not too much effort. And then I could head over to Aizawa's apartment and hang out there. With the cats.

"Good afternoon, class!" I greeted them.

"Good afternoon, Miss Takahashi." they replied, less enthusiastic as usual and with some very concerned glances at the papers in my hand.

"Alright everyone, it's time for a little pop quiz. You'll have 20 minutes to answer all the questions and then we'll start with the new topic. Everyone with me so far?" I said to them. There were some silent nods, but no one raised their hand to ask a question. So far, so good.

"Alright then. I'll hand out the papers. You turn them around when I say so. That's when you can start working on them." I told them, as I moved through the rows of desks, handing out the tests to everyone. I had just finished, as I heard a knock on the door. Who the hell was that now?
"Everyone, turn around the tests and get started." I said to the students and then went over to the door, opening it slightly. Snipe was standing there, looking like he had ran all the way here.

"Hey, Snipe. What is it?" I asked him quietly.

"There's villains. At the USJ. We need to hurry, only Thirteen and Aizawa are there to protect the students, we can't find Allmight. Head over there as quickly as you can while we round up the rest of the students." was all he said, before moving on to the next door. I closed the door and looked down at the handle for a while, trying to sort my thoughts.

Villains? At the USJ? That was... bad. Why did no one say how many there were? Why now? How long had this been going on? Fuck, I needed to get there right away. I turned back to the class. They were all still very busy taking their tests. I took a deep breath and returned to my desk.

"Everyone, I'll have to go somewhere really quick. You stay here and finish the test and once the bell rings, you put them on my desk. Stay in here until you get further instructions. Are we all clear about that? It's important you stay here and follow any additional instructions you might get." I said to them. I didn't even wait for their reactions, before I quickly walked out of the door.

I had managed to compose myself so far, but now that I was out of the students' sight, I ran towards the main entrance. I tried not getting them panicked or scared, but I was scared as fuck myself. There were already a bunch of teachers on their way to the USJ and I decided to follow them. All of them were in their hero costumes. I was too, technically, but that was mostly because I never was that much of a fan of costumes, so even as a Pro Hero I was just wearing cargo pants, combat boots and a tank top. Usually I had some extra protective gear with me, but at the moment, all I had was my sweater and that would be more in the way than anything.

It just had to do right now. I was glad I only just had a big lunch and two cups of coffee, because I knew I would definitely need all that energy to use my quirk efficiently. I was almost looking forward to it a little. I hadn't used it in combat in a long, long time.