51 Message From Beyond

(Izumi)

"Blegh." I poke at one of the pink pieces of raw fish layered across tiny individual piles of rice resting on my plate with a frown, wishing that they could have at least wrapped it in the rice to make it a sushi roll. Why do I have something I dislike on my plate in the UA cafeteria? Because, for some reason, Principal Nezu decided that part two of my punishment would consist of not only spending an hour after school helping the teachers, but also having my lunches randomly switched out with stuff I dislike.

It's weird, nonsensical, and not enough of a punishment. When I asked about it he told me that being denied Lunch Rush's food is a far worse punishment than it seems. Then he started cackling and I got a bad feeling so I ran away.

I mean… I guess it's a punishment? But this is only the first day, so I have no idea of how bad of a punishment it actually is. Guess I'll learn tomorrow. Unless my lunch gets switched out again. But if it starts happening too often then I'd just bring my own lunch, which is probably why he said it would only happen occasionally…

"Yoink!" I hear someone yell across from me, and the piece of sushi I'd been poking at vanishes, speared by the fork of another. I follow it to its new destination, and see… nothing.

"Oh no! The ghost of UA has stolen my lunch! Whatever shall I do?" I yell dramatically as I fake swoon, getting a chuckle from the invisible girl and the pink girl next to her.

"We totally need to do a seance! It's the only way we'll be able to know what it wants and- hey!" Ashido shouts as Hagakure steals a piece of asparagus from her own plate.

"I think the ghost wants to eat its friends," the rosy cheeked girl next to me says with a giggle, allowing Hagakure to reach over to her plate and watching as she hesitates. Her fork twitches above Uraraka's plate as she tries to decide what to take before pulling back with a huff.

"Why don't you have anything that can represent me!? I have marshmallows in my cocoa for you!" She takes a sip from said hot beverage -in spring- then tilts it forward to show us the partially melted fluffy treats.

"I mean…" She shrugs her shoulders noncommittaly in response. "I was in the mood for a beef rice bowl. Sorry!" She lightly claps her hands and tilts her head in apology.

Hagakure's sleeves move and her shirt slides backward a bit, telling us that she's probably leaning back with her hands around her head. "Woe is me, the ghost is unsatisfied! I can only be appeased through obtaining a juicy secret!"

Uraraka rolls her eyes at the look Ashido and (probably) Hagakure send her, even as a flash of sadness goes through her eyes.. "I told you, all he did was ask me to give a message to someone if they got into UA. That Bakugou kid!" She shakes her head. "I still don't know how they knew that I'd pass the exam though."

I take a bite of sushi, my lips turning downward as I swallow, at both the taste and the texture. 'Food is meant to be cooked dammiit!' Sounds to me like they could see your potential, while you were struggling with your own self confidence."

[...]

I don't know how my mental self-recriminations managed to do a judgemental silence, but I'm just going to ignore it. Like I've been doing since Aizawa-sensei first glared at me this morning.

Ashido nods, putting on the air of a knowledgeable sage as she strokes her chin. "Indeed, young one. To have the confidence to pass, one must first have confidence in themselves."

Hagakure snorts. "Cool line. Did you steal it from the back of a cereal box?"

Ashido looks side-to-side as she replies. "Noooo…" After a moment of silence from Hagakure she relents. "It was a karate commercial."

We laugh together for a few moments, Uraraka letting out a groan as she slumps in her seat. "I'm just glad Aizawa-sensei 'saw our potential' and didn't expel anyone."

"Totally!" Hagakure says excitedly. "I totally thought Bakugou was going to get the boot when he charged at Izumi for getting a higher score!"

"I mean, I can kind of understand getting frustrated after seeing that." Ashido hedges as I send her an offended look, getting a snort in return. "Oh come on, flying was totally going over the top! You got over a thousand meters!"

I wave her off. "First of all, I didn't even get the top score, Uraraka did. Second of all, you have no idea how close I was to losing concentration and falling out of the sky." I shudder. "Note to self, don't go higher than two stories."

[But the pain~. The punishment~. Who knows, if you fall from high enough I just might go away~.]

That has me hesitating for a moment, but I forcefully push aside the thought. Despite…everything, I don't want to die. The pain I give myself helps me, reminds me, and works to help me understand just a little of what he went through. What I want, is to make amends, even though I know I'll never be able to. I want to show him that I won't be the person I was. I want to be someone he would be happy to see.

'I want my brother…'

I blink away the tears before they can form as Ashido rolls her eyes. "First of all, ain't no one counting frickin infinity as a score. That was way too crazy! And kind of scary."

"Huh!?" Uraraka blinks in confusion at Ashido. "I'm scary!?"

Ashido waves her hand. "You? No. The thought that you could literally throw any one of us into the sun if you get mad? Absolutely."

She has a point. It didn't even look like it took all that much effort from her to do it. I might be able to do something similar if I train enough, but it would be far, far from easy. Or anytime soon.

"Second of all," Ashido continues as she points at me, "it doesn't matter how hard it was for you, a thousand meters is a thousand meters!"

I answer her with another bite of my food, slowly finishing off my lunch as I try to ignore the taste by keeping my focus on the conversation. Though it's drifted away from the tests Aizawa-sensei had us do this morning and to what we think of the others in our class.

"I'm telling you, Bakugou and Tokoyami know each other! They even have nicknames for each other!"

"Bakugou gives nicknames to everyone," I wave my fork dismissively. "He doesn't care enough about anyone else to learn their names."

"Yeah, but I heard Tokoyami call him 'Wrath'. And he hasn't nicknamed anyone else." Hagakure points out.

"U-um, I think Todoroki is kind of cool." Uraraka says, probably trying to move the conversation away from Bakugou. Even if the message she's supposed to give him is nice, odds are still pretty even with him losing his temper at her. And with how worried she looks when she shoots glances at him shouting on the other side of the cafeteria, it's anything but that.

Her comment gets a round of groans from the bubbly girls. "Boo! Temperature jokes need to be more thought out than that!"

"Yeah! There was literally no effort in calling her cool! You could have at least slipped in a 'hot' pun!"

I smile as the girls start thinking up different jokes they can make about Todoroki because of her quirk, my mind going back to how easily she managed to get the top spot during the tests. Especially the sprint and ball throw.

It took about two seconds where she made an ice-platform to stand on, then it just suddenly jumped forward and she was across the finish line. Poor Kirishima didn't have a chance. I don't know how she did it, but I do know she needs to use both sides of her quirk to do it since I saw a flash of flames under the platform before she launched. Same with the ball throw; a long tube of ice followed by a flash of fire.

I'm pulled out of the memory by the other girls gathering their trays and getting up. "I get it's supposed to be a message to Bakugou, but can we at least listen in?" Ashido whines, and this time Uraraka seems to actually think about it before her eyes turn to me.

Curious.

\So you swing that way?/

'Wait, what?' I have no idea where those words came from, and it sounded distinctly different from the usual voice I hear in my head. Before I can put more thought to it though, Uraraka speaks.

"Um, well. I guess there's not really a reason to stop you. Not like you wouldn't try anyways." Ashido nods with a big grin on her face, entirely unrepentant that Uraraka called her out. "Plus… I was kind of hoping Yagi could help me get away afterwards."

"Huh? Get away?"

Uraraka nods seriously. "Yeah. Since he attacked you back during the test, he's definitely going to attack me after I tell him what Biggius Dickus told me to tell him."

 So I was right, it's not a nice message. A shame it isn't in a note, then she could just- wait. Their name is what?

Ashido and Hagakure's loud laughter assure me that, yes, I heard the name correctly. Uraraka frowns at them and crosses her arms, clearly upset at their response, but she doesn't say anything. After they get their laughter under control Hagakure's sleeve moves and Uraraka's shoulder dips briefly.

"Good one, Urara."

Mina nods. "Yeah, you were holding out on us with the Todoroki joke!"

She says nothing, just frowning at them as she keeps her arms crossed. When they just stare at her blankly she huffs and turns around, heading in the same direction Bakugou just left in. I follow since, well, she asked, and I don't want to see my classmate murdered. Though her reaction is odd, even though it seems like that actually is the person's name that she's delivering the message for.

It looks like the two girls realize that they've made her genuinely upset since they don't follow, despite their clear interest in the first interesting -non-class- thing to happen in the school year. Once we get to the doors leading out of the building she looks back and sighs with relief upon seeing me.

"Thank goodness. Ok, so my house is east, after I make myself weightless I just need you to use your own quirk to launch me in that direction. I can control my landing without too much trouble!" She clenches her hands in determination, though her face is looking a little queasy.

Yeah, flying is not an easy thing to get used to. Even when you're doing it all by yourself. I can only imagine how rough it would be if you had to rely on someone else to get you safely back on the ground. With a slap of her cheeks and a small smile directed at me, she pushes open the doors and strides out, raising her hand and shouting as she sees Bakugou halfway to the gate with what he calls his 'signature pro walk'. Really, it just looks like he's pissed at something. Which, to be fair, he always is.

"Hey! Bakugou! I need to give you a message!" He turns around with a scowl, bag casually held over one shoulder while the other is thrust in his pocket.

"The fuck you want, extra? I have shit to do." Surprisingly, he isn't shouting. Though he hasn't gotten the message yet so I think that's about to change.

Uraraka doesn't let the cursing dissuade her. "I was asked to give you a message from someone who knew you would get in."

Bakugou smirks as he turns around and faces her, his posture reeking of arrogant pride. "Course I was going to pass. I'm going to surpass All Might and become the new number one hero!"

She doesn't respond to his claim except to look distinctly more uneasy, and I carefully wrap her in my power, prepared to pull her away the moment Bakugou makes a move. She takes a deep breath as she touches her throat, her fingers glowing pink briefly.

Her words come out in a rush, clearly wanting to be away as soon as possible. "Biggius Dickus said you need to get your ego under control because it's making everything else smaller, and you didn't have much to work with in the first place!"

It takes more than a few seconds for Bakugou to come out of the brief daze he's been put in from the unexpected words, his smirk frozen on his face. Which is good because it takes me a second to come to terms with it as well. Luckily I'm quick enough, and the weightless girl goes flying out of UA grounds, followed by shouting and explosions from the angry teen trying to follow.

I stare at the spot they were for an unknown length of time, trying to put my previous image of the girl being nice and friendly into the frame of what I just saw and heard. It's not until a hand touches my shoulder that I'm shaken back to reality. I turn and see that it's Midnight who's standing behind me with a frown on her face.

"I heard that you need to stay behind to help the teachers everyday, but not today since it's the first day of school." She waves her hands at me, trying to shoo me away. "Go on, get. Find a cute boy to hook up with or something. Just make sure you can still attend school tomorrow!"

I stare at her blankly for a moment before robotically making my way through the school gate, three simple words circling around in my head.

'What the fuck?'