An Undead Academic Experience 7

Chapter 7: Aftermath

<<<Xiao ‘Lily’ Lang>>>

As expected of a school, even more so of UA, after what was coming to be called the USJ Incident, class 1A  was given a week to recover. Though in Lily’s case, she found herself mainly brooding, Izuki pulled her out of it whenever she called to talk, which usually evolved into quirk debates.

It helped, but didn’t change the fact that she still felt responsible despite how unreasonable it was. She knew she couldn’t have done anything to change what happened, though a vindictive part of her delighted in knowing she possibly crippled that villain unless he had access to a bullshit healing quirk.

He probably did, while the attempted raid was very poor, it clearly said that this ‘League of Villains’ had backing of some sort. Though if his quirk was like Uraraka’s in needing to touch with all his fingers, then she probably fucked up his quirk pretty bad.

Unless it evolved like hers did, which would be… unfortunate.

Getting up and stretching, she decided to go on a walk to get some fresh air. Grabbing her cell and keys, she left her apartment and locked up before making her way to the street. 

She was, miracle of miracles, intercepted as she left the building. By All Might, of all people.

It took a lot of self-control not to lash out at him for not having been there. It was probably wrong to feel that way towards him; he just hadn’t been there, and there was probably a good reason for it… But she was still angry.

So when he went to his knees and put his forehead to the ground to apologize, she was rather taken aback.

“I am sorry for not being there,” He said, voice lacking its usual booming quality, “We are doing everything we can to find her, and I sincerely wish to apologize for my failures.”

Lily bit back the urge to curse and yell; it’d honestly serve no point other than making the man feel worse and probably give her a momentary sense of satisfaction. So instead she just paused to collect her thoughts, “I… understand… and I’m just a student myself but… you’re our teacher…” How exactly does she tell him he needs to learn how to fucking prioritize and not sound like a complete bitch?

“I spent my strength unwisely,” He admitted, “And the jamming the villains used prevented Principle Nezu and me from hearing of it until it was over. I just ask that you do not blame the school.”

“Well, that explains why the security didn’t work.” She thought before shaking her head, “Honestly, I blame the villains more than the school,” She said. After all, with UA’s reputation, how commonly did villains attack the institute? Not particularly often at all.

“Nonetheless, no one will blame you if you choose to go to another school, but we dearly wish for you to stay,” He continued, “We are improving security even as we speak.”

Lily nodded, “Um… you can get up…” She said awkwardly, while Kana would probably find All Might in a dogeza stance interesting, she just felt awkward about it.

All Might was a larger-than-life figure, literally and figuratively, so having such a large man pressing his head against the floor just made her uncomfortable.

Slowly, he stood, though for such a large man, he still seemed… vulnerable. He was, as far as she could tell, truly and painfully apologetic. “I… have more students and their families to see,” He said, “If you have any questions about what we’re doing to help with security, please ask Power Loader. He can’t tell you everything, of course, but…”

“Anything is better than nothing,” Lily said with a short bow, “Thank you.”

He nodded back before darting away, no doubt to apologize to more people… and perhaps seeing if they’d need therapy, she was pretty sure she didn’t, but others…

Well, she might as well go to… she didn’t know what she’d been planning to do before All Might showed up. “Dammit.”

[hr][/hr]

Momo was contemplative as she passed Lily a cup of tea. “Any news?” She asked, “I haven’t seen anything, even using my parents, er, contacts.”

Lily shook her head as she took the cup, “Nope,” She sighed in reply, “Though Power Loader-sensei promised when they had anything they’d share.”

“It’s not your fault, Lily,” Momo said, “It’s the villain's fault.”

“I know, but I can’t help it,” She admitted, a storm of emotions playing itself across her face.

“Actually, I believe you and Kana performed amazingly during the incident,” Momo said, “Much better than I…” She added.

“Momo, don’t do that.” Lilly said, “Don’t compare yourself to me or Kana or any of our classmates. You’re here to learn, expecting yourself to be able to handle that sort of situation is unreasonable!” She sucked at this motivation stuff, or so she thought, “How about instead of comparing yourself to everyone else, how about you try to do better than the Momo of Yesterday did?”

“... that sounds like something out of a bad anime, you realize that, right?” She pointed out soon after, “I think you’ve spent too long around Kaminari.” Her voice and smile were much lighter than before, which was progress at least.

“I suck at motivation, yes, I know this.” Lily said with a huff, “But did it work?”

“Maybe,” Momo replied with a weak grin, “Just maybe.”

Now it was Lily’s turn to grin. “Well, if it works, it works,” She said with a shrug, “So, you think Aizawa is gonna give me and Kana hell when she gets back?” She asked, figuring a change of subject was required.

“I think,” Momo’s voice was serious, “that hell will be an understatement. A minimum degree of roasting.” She… was probably right about that, but it wasn’t like they didn’t deserve it either. “How’s the tea? Actually… can you taste anything with your…” She mimed popping her own head off… with a hastily made foam prop.

“Oh, I’m enjoying it fine,” Lily said as she sipped her tea through a straw, her head on a pillow while her body exercised, “Still don’t know how I’m drinking it, but I’ll leave that to our quirk expert Izuki to figure out.”

“I think she’s given up, finally,” Momo replied with a grin, “It only took, what, a week?”

“Thereabouts,” Lily said, “Which is a pity, she looks very cute when she’s brainstorming. In fact… are all students in UA cute? Or just the Hero classes?” She mused as she tilted her head in thought… somehow.

Momo blinked and opened her mouth… only to slowly shut it as she gave it serious thought.

“Seriously, even the Bomberanian is cute! Is it something they put in the water?” Lily wondered.

“It’s more than we all put in a lot of effort,” Momo started, “It’s hard to be ugly when you’re working out all the time. Even Sato is more muscle than fat, and he eats pure sugar for his quirk.”

“Fair,” Lily said, “Though it’s so weird being surrounded by attractive people when you’re seen as a freak… well, back home anyway.”

“You’re plenty attractive,” Momo replied, “A bit of makeup on you and I bet you could pull the same crowds that Midnight does.”

Lily blushed, “I, uh… never used makeup before…” She admitted, “I never saw the point, I’m something of a tomboy and well… I didn’t want to put so much effort into something only to ruin it because I was running around.”

“You don’t sweat,” Momo noted with a grin. “Come on, let’s get you nice and pretty,” She said as she stood up and started making her way to what could generously be called a bathroom (a spa was a more accurate description).

“Well, I did before my quirk came in,” She said as her body came over and picked her head up, only holding it under her shoulder instead of putting it back in place, and followed after Momo.

“You know, I think we should have a large sleepover sometime,” Lily commented, “You’ve got more than enough room, honestly, we could play games and do each other's make-up,” She added thoughtfully.

“That’s a great idea,” Momo replied with a nod, “When Kana gets back, we can do it as a celebration!”

“Though that Handy villain is lucky I only got his arm…” Lily grumbled before shaking it off (literally, she held her head and shook it), “No, don’t want to bring the mood down…”

The ringing of the doorbell interrupted whatever Momo was about to say, “Huh. That door is only used for mail,” She started, which only reminded Lily of just how massive her house was, “I thought that already arrived?”

It did seem late for something to be delivered.

“Maybe my parents ordered something?” She asked aloud as they made their way over.

A servant quickly handed her a package with a shrug, “It’s for you. There are no poisons or explosives in it, and it’s from a ‘Sato Kana’?”

“That’s strange…” Momo said as she looked at the package.

“Maybe she got loose somehow and sent it?” Lily offered, sounding just as confused as Momo, “Think we should watch it or take it to the Principal?”

“I think we should probably watch it… just in case it’s time-limited or something, I’ll film the recording just in case,” She replied with a frown, “And I’m really curious.”

“Okay,” Lily said.

The video was short and… most of what it showed was Kana laughing, admittedly, but the way she was laughing and… what she had to say… it was concerning. Very concerning.

“Huh, I think Rumi was off with her initial thoughts…” She muttered to herself.

“Uhh… why was she…” Momo started, “Completely different from how she was in class?” Her friend was clearly startled, “It has to be faked, no way is she actually like that, right?”

“It’s uh, what’s that term…” Lily muttered to herself, “It’s right on the tip of my tongue…”

Lily finger tapped her forehead, “Social Chameleon! She didn’t know how to act, so she was taking cues from the people around her!” She said. 

“That… wouldn’t explain the stutters and the slow speaking… thing,” Momo replied, “Or any of… that.” The word was, somehow, enough to encompass everything in the video.

“I think that’s more a personal choice. But that… I can’t explain,” Lily said, “I think it’s just… she has that personality type, I think? Honestly, I and someone else thought she was on the autistic spectrum.”

“She said she was the same as her kidnapper!” Momo squeaked.

“We’ll figure this out, okay? Don’t worry.” Lily said, trying to keep the unfairly developed teenager from worrying, “She could simply mean ambitious? I mean… It’s pretty ambitious to try and kill All Might, right?”

But… Lily felt that wasn’t right, too, knew it wasn’t even. Not with what happened with Mirko and not with how she dealt with the reporters.

What she did know was that Kana was going to have to explain some things. And she wouldn’t let her change the subject either.

“... hold on,” Momo started, rewinding the video and playing it again, “Do you hear something in the background?”

There was a sound, very slight. A banging noise, rhythmic and steady.

“What is that?” Lily muttered, scratching her head, “What do you think, Momo?”

“It… kinda sounds like a factory?” She replied with a frown, “We need to get this to Principal Nezu.”

Lily couldn’t do anything but agree with that.