Wide, unblinking eyes.
Hands, held oddly in front of her, that were bigger than most.
Himiko’s eyes jumped from the long haired girl in the green tracksuit to the one behind her.
The head of a snake.
Coiled and peaking over the shorter girl’s shoulder, yellow slitted eyes met hers, an odd contrast formed between them and the mess of red hair the person had.
Akaguro always mentioned a gym, busy going to the place every day aside from the weekends, but he never talked about anyone.
“This is my friend Mongoose Habuko.” The long haired one introduced her friend, one of her big hands raised towards the snake headed girl behind her.
“She wanted to work out with us.
Is that okay?”
So, it was actually the long haired girl he knew?
“I can’t really complain when I did the same.” Akaguro said, pointing her way, Himiko instinctively smiling at the two.
“This is Toga Himiko, a friend from my school.
She also wanted to tag along with me.”
“I guess this works out then, ribbit.” The long haired girl said, looking her way.
“I’m Tsuyu Asui, but you can call me Tsu.”
“Akaguro Katsuya.” Akaguro said, focusing on Mongoose and following the Tsu girl’s example.
“Are we going to do our usual or should we start lighter?”
“Lighter.” Tsu said, moving towards the machines.
Himiko quickly found out that lighter didn’t mean easy.
From the treadmills to the benches and everything in between, Himiko ended up struggling alongside the Mongoose girl.
Both Tsu and Akaguro pushed hard at everything they did even if they were apparently taking it easy, running way too long, lifting way too much weight for her to be any help, and their breaks way too short.
She knew he took studying seriously but thought this would’ve been more of a fun hobby for him.
She wasn’t really seeing the fun.
“They’re both really dedicated, huh?” Tsu’s friend said, the both of them were watching the two from a nearby water fountain.
Himiko hummed along, focusing on Akaguro.
What she heard about him really didn’t match up with what she’d seen so far.
Either way, she couldn’t but wonder why he was doing what he was.
Was he just naturally motivated or did he have some kind of big goal he was after?
XOXO
“I’m tired.” Himiko complained, leaning back against the bench they sat on, back in the same park they first exchanged blood in.
“That’s how going to the gym works.” Akaguro said, lowering the water bottle he’d been drinking from.
“Trying to match Tsu probably wasn’t a good idea.
That girl’s way stronger than me when I’m not using my quirk.”
She looked his way, then moved, head laid on his shoulder.
Just like with her hugs he didn’t have a problem with it, leaving her be.
She’d been restraining herself before, trying to understand what he would and wouldn’t be bothered by like she did with everyone else.
She’d learned early on that touchiness didn’t always sit well with others, and like everything else, she needed to be careful about it especially since it made certain cravings harder to resist.
But he wasn’t like everyone.
She wanted more of his blood but there was more pulling at her than that.
“Why do you work so hard?” Himiko asked.
“I’m thinking about applying to U.A.”
“You want to be a hero?” That was so random.
He never brought up things like that or seemed interested in heroes; she knew a few students who talked about going there or having that kind of dream and he wasn’t anything like them.
“Eh, not really.” He said throwing her for another curve.
She never heard of anyone signing up for U.A.
that wasn’t also interested in being one of the great pro heroes.
So, he wanted to go to U.A.
That explained all the studying and working out.
But he didn’t want to be a hero?
She only felt more curious.
Just as much as she wanted his blood, her mouth growing just a little wetter at the thought of it, she wanted to understand him and why he wasn’t bothered by the things that should’ve exposed her as a freak.
“What do you want to do?” Himiko asked.
“You know, after you graduate and stuff?”
“I-” Akaguro was always so calm and unbothered, most things just sliding right off his back, that she didn’t think she’d ever see him flat out confused.
Until now.
Arms crossed, the shoulder her head was on rising a bit, Akaguro actually looked unsure, thinking about it far longer than she expected.
“I don’t really know.”
A small laugh left her.
“I say something funny?”
“No, I just expected something different.” She was pretty sure that was the most normal answer to have.
That or some big crazy dream that’d be forgotten about once he was older.
That was how it went for others their age from everything she saw and read.
She was in the no idea category too, just figuring she’d coast along doing what was expected of her and fitting in.
Himiko leaned a little closer to him, taking in the faint smell of sweat that still lingered on him.
There was something nice about there being more similarities between them than just how their quirks worked.
“Hey, Akaguro.”
“Yeah?”
“I can call you Katsu, right?”
“If you want.”
She moved in closer, facing his neck and-
“You can’t do that though.” He said, scooting away from her for the first time.
“But you-”
“I said I’d give you some of my blood if you asked.” Himiko looked away from his more serious gaze, embarrassment quickly overtaking her disappointment.
“Besides, I need some of your blood first.”
She quickly offered up her hand.
She would’ve liked if he just let her have some when she wanted but sharing blood with him sounded-
“Toga, you’re making that face again.”
“I do not have a face!
And I’m not thinking anything weird.”
“You’re telling on yourself at this point.”
XOXO
What did I want?
Hand against the tilted wall of the bathroom, hot water ran through my hair and down my body, the shower filling my ears.
It was a simple question, but had I asked myself it since this whole Chaos thing happened?
Had I considered it?
I knew what I didn’t want.
I didn’t want to die.
I didn’t want to live in a world turned to shit by a bunch of villains no matter what flaws of society they took issue with.
I didn’t want to end up at the center of the incoming catastrophe.
I didn’t want to put in any effort, so I only ever did what felt easy, gaming my usual go to.
I didn’t want to disappoint my parents, so I ended up working hard in school, studying shit I didn’t care about.
I didn’t want to be a broke bum so I worked the first job I could find no matter how much I hated it.
And in the end, what had that life that felt more and more distant turned into?
A numb sorry excuse of one.
When was the last time I had truly felt engaged with anything I had done?
At work?
As if; I mentally clocked out the moment I physically clocked in, the bare minimum amount of effort needed to keep myself from being fired put in.
While gaming?
It’s been a long time since I truly felt like a game really grabbed my attention.
The only reason I’d kept playing most games aside from missing my friends had to do with money more than anything else.
With so many free to play games around it could be a cheap hobby until I indulged in a skin, battle pass, or some other kind of DLC then decide I spent so much on it I might as well stick around until the servers shut down before jumping ship to a different one.
Get the most bang for my buck.
A typical case of the cost sunk fallacy I supposed.
Everything in between wasn’t even worth a thought.
That life had followed a mind-numbing routine for so long that I wasn’t even sure when I began checking out of it all.
Most things I did were simply because they were familiar to me; like some puppy mimicking its owner.
The puppy being me and owner the person I used to be.
The person who enjoyed playing games and coasting through life.
What little forward momentum I ever built up came in the form of short spurts of motivation when I did stuff like write that tapered out and left me rubber banning right back into the cycle that left me so numb to begin with.
Now that I was taking a moment to think about it, really think about it without the shock, curiosity or self perseveration pushing me forward, I found himself coming back to a single question.
Wasn’t this better than the dull existence I’d been maintaining?
Between both lives, most of my time here spent brooding about my father, I was actually pushing myself.
Studying, working out, playing around with stuff from the gacha, and everything with Toga.
Even if they were difficult and had plenty to do with me just trying to avoid dying, just as much of all that was a choice.
I didn’t actually need to do more than the bare minimum in some of the cases.
And Toga?
I could’ve gone down a much bleaker route and just offed her, messed up as it sounded to do that to someone my own age.
If this gacha system rewarded me for delaying her fall it would do the same for stopping it permanently.
I probably would’ve gotten my first gold ticket or higher doing something like that.
I enjoyed pushing myself.
I enjoying experimenting with the random things this gacha gave me.
I enjoyed hanging out with Toga despite the risk.
These short few weeks felt better than anything.
I stepped from beneath the hot water, steaming rising off my skin as I pushed my hair back, wiping at my face.
I didn’t know what the endgame was here, but I wanted to keeping pushing myself towards things rather than running away from what I didn’t want.
XOXO
(A/N: I be yapping.
Hopefully no one relates to that tail end of the chapter.
Anyways, as much as the MC is affecting Toga, having someone around him who’s actively trying to get to know him will also have an affect on the MC.
Relationships are a two way street and all that.
It was a simple enough question but Toga might’ve lowkey helped him slow down and find center himself a bit.
Rare Saturday post though.
Strange.
Either way, see you in the next one.)