【ＥＮＩＧＭＡ】

***

For an entire two seconds after the blow of Midnight's whistle, Y/n was motionless.

She couldn't wince at the sharp pains, the pitchy whistling and hissing—a static—that filled her mind and the world seemed to disappear and take everything with it. She didn't know where she was, where she should go—or how she was supposed to know any of these things. The pads of her fingers were buzzing, arms fell limp—numb and her legs were like jelly.

Y/n painfully shook her head and breathed through her clenched teeth. 

Her body prickled in stabbing pains with a quick heat. Y/n racked with full body chills, all in half of another second. She gasped and breathed long and unsteady, lungs aching as she sucked in everything that'd been stolen. She felt waves as she stumbled and worked to get her senses intact.

They came from Shinsou.

They felt jagged, weighted and controlled—like he was somehow attempting to hold down her vibrations. Y/n didn't know how that was possible—how someone could take her vibrations and the energy she felt around her and somehow hold them to the point of nearly controlling what she felt—but Shinsou had accomplished it and it was more than just unsettling. She shivered again, teeth clattering as she shook her shoulders.

"What the hell," Y/n screwed her face and wiggled her shoulders to grab Shinsou's attention. "Hey can you—like, not? Mess with my head like that, dude?"

Shinsou froze, shifted and his fingers gripped her shoulders tighter. "I, uh. What? What are you talking about?"

"I don't know? You just did a thing—"

She stiffened again, jolted as quick tremors ran through her body, teeth clattered more intense than before. The same feeling of weight and suppression surrounded her. Her teeth ground against each other and she groaned as she twisted horribly to get rid of the rapid tightening around her waist, her arms, the stretching over her skin. Y/n shook her shoulders again, more fierce.

"Dude," she hissed. "Seriously, whatever you're trying to do: knock it off. It's messing with my head—stop it. Are you trying to use your Quirk on me or something? What's that even supposed to be?"

"Uh. I don't - what the hell?"

"Yeah, what the hell is right. You said you wanted me to help you and here you are, getting in the way of your own success. If my senses aren't intact, then I can't help you. That's all I got. So if you wanna have a shot at winning this thing: stop whatever you're doing."

"What?" Shinsou whispered. "Why isn't it working?"

Y/n set her jaw and spoke through her clenched teeth. "I don't know what you're trying to do, but I'm blind. And I keep trying to tell you that if you're going to use me, the best way to do that is to make sure all of my other senses are perfect. Which means: stop messing with my vibrations, dude. I can do what you need me to do as long as you back off,"

"Wait—you're blind? Are you kidding me?" Shinsou hissed. "What the—? What am I supposed to do with that?"

Y/n rolled her eyes. Once. Twice. A third time, because she was stuck with someone who was genuinely dumber than her—as if she hadn't just stated multiple times that he could use her as long as he stopped trying to sabotage and ruin her vibrations. 

Y/n could hear the commotion around them and Present Mic's commentary—the battle had already begun, seconds and minutes were being wasted while they stood by the sidelines doing absolutely nothing and if they wanted any shot at getting to the next event, then they had to move.

"I told you," Y/n ground out through gritted teeth. "You can use me as long as my senses are intact. I don't need to see in order to—someone's coming from behind!"

Shinsou jolted, a surprised noise bubbling in his throat, "Ojiro, Aoyama - move out of the way now!" And on command, Ojiro and Aoyama—who'd yet to say a word since the beginning of the battle—were moving forward and out of the way of attack, Y/n leading them. Shinsou growled, "shit!"

"They snatched your band?" Y/n asked, taking in a big breath to release steadily. She had to level herself again after whatever Shinsou had done to throw her off.

"Yeah—we're at zero," Shinsou groaned. "I don't have time for this!"

Y/n rolled her eyes again. "I don't think any of us do," Y/n half expected Ojiro to join in at this point and say something—maybe even Aoyama could add in some sparkly complaint - she didn't know, but she could use some kind of backup. "What's the plan, Shinsou? Don't tell me your only plan was doing some weird voodoo magic on me and—"

"Shut up, let me think - I'm thinking." Shinsou tightened his hold on Y/n's shoulder and Y/n hissed again with a shake.

"Watch your grip."

Shinsou ignored her, "Listen," he said. "There's too much going on right now. Everyone's fired up and alert—it'll be impossible for us to grab a band and get away with it for the rest of the battle. If we want a chance: we'll have to wait until the end and then—we'll go for the low numbers. Not the ten million—we won't go for anyone who stood out in class 1-A. If we take enough bands with low numbers, they'll stack up and become something big."

"You wanna wait?" Y/n huffed and jutted her chin. "It sounds a lot like winging it, which is how I usually do things, but... Do you have an exact plan?"

"It's not exact, but it's a plan. Just—how am I supposed to use you?"

"You tell me what you need and I'll do it," Y/n chose her words carefully. She couldn't do anything spectacular—couldn't do anything more than the bare minimum of someone with good working eyes. She'd learned it only seemed spectacular because she didn't have good working eyes. "I'm good with surroundings. I'll be able to tell you if someone's coming up from behind or on your sides so we can evade in advance, but that's about it. Basically eyes literally everywhere—without actual eyes anywhere."

"Is that your Quirk? You can't see but you're... good with, what, senses?"

"I don't know," Y/n admitted. "I've always been like that. Think it has more to do with blindness than an actual Quirk, though. I'm just telling you what I'm able to give you. Can you work with that? I mean we don't really have much of a choice right now, but—"

"I can work with that."

"Yeah?"

"I mean like you said—we don't have much of a choice. We're here, the match started, and we're on a timer. The best plan I've got is waiting it out relying on your non-working eyes so we have to make the most of what we have, right? We'll move in when we're down to a minute."

Y/n choked, "A—a minute?"

"Maybe thirty seconds."

Y/n grinned. "You know, Shinsou, I kind of like you. You're a lot like me. Winging it and stuff. I'm trusting you a second time. Lead us to victory, my liege!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever."

Shinsou ordered Y/n to steer them to the sidelines while Shinsou took on the job of scouting the weakest teams—watching their weaknesses to prey on when they were down enough on time to go in for the kill. He continued to remind her that when it was time, they were steering clear of any of the big teams—the ten million, especially.

It meant completely ignoring Midoriya, Pompom, and Mr. Perfect, which she wanted to do, anyway. Midoriya because she was rooting for him more than she was rooting for herself. Mr. Perfect was the same reason as Pompom—she wasn't good enough to fight on the same playing field as those two. At least not yet, and despite her being... well, her—there was only so much humiliation she could take a day. And - she was nearing her limit. The rejection of both of those losers back to back wounded her.

In a way, Shinsou's plan was right up her alley; preying on the weak to boost her ego and secure her win at the very last minute. And, true to their plan—when Shinsou had called that they had exactly 25 seconds left to steal as many headbands as they could, Y/n had recovered completely from Shinsou's previous attack, kicked herself into gear, and rushed in the direction Shinsou had ordered. Ojiro and Aoyama still hadn't said anything at all, and Y/n called out those who were on their back once they went rushing in for a particularly loud team.

"Evade, evade—we're going for the next target," Shinsou mumbled, the gruffness of his worry lay thick in his words.

"How many seconds?" Y/n asked as she changed course.

"Fifteen—we're going in for that guy then... Hey!" Shinsou suddenly called and Y/n stumbled to a stop. There was a hum and Shinsou quickly continued, "All of you: tell me the number of bands you have."

Y/n raised a brow. Questions didn't need to be asked—they needed to take the bands and go.

"Huh?" One of them said, "why would we tell you!"

Shinsou huffed out a laugh. 

"Fine. How about you tell me? Or you—tell me." All of Shinsou's questioning was met with rejections and denials and Y/n felt Shinsou throw up his arms, like he was resigning. "Fine. Have it your way. And thank—" he reached over Y/n's head for two seconds before settling back, "you. We're good, L/n, let's go."

Y/n blinked. "You got the bands?" Y/n shuffled away, stumbling over her feet and rushing into the other group as she tried to swiftly escape. "Wait—how? What'd you do?—"

"Doesn't matter. We're alright, now, we've secured a spot."

There was a gasp from Ojirou—"Whoa," he breathed, stumbling to a stop. Y/n and Shinsou jolted at the hiccup and she shot a slight frown at him. Nice for him to finally actively join the efforts. "What the—hey. What - is the match—?"

"Time's up!" Midnight called.

Y/n immediately flung herself to the side to throw Shinsou off of her shoulders and away from her other two teammates at those words and the pitchy whistle. The waves of aching that spread throughout her shoulders made it hard for her to stand up all the way and she winced as her palms glided over the back of her neck. Her palm and fingers were damp and sticky.

Y/n jolted. "Oh - gross, Shinsou! Thigh sweat? Really?"

Shinsou scoffed. "Neck sweat, you mean."

"Neck sweat," Y/n repeated around a scoff. "Neck sweat? You're seriously gonna try telling me my neck is wet because of me? Like your hard slabs of meat weren't dripping moisture?"

"You're disgusting."

"H-hey," there was a tap at Y/n's shoulder, hesitant, unsure. And out of her teammates, she recognized the voice as Ojiro's. Only the second time he'd openly spoken since they gathered together to team up with Shinsou. "L/n?"

Y/n forgot all about the sweat layered on her neck, flinging her hand to rid herself of it as she turned to face her classmates with a raised brow, "Ojiro."

"Uh - hi. So, I don't know if it's just me, but," he shifted closer and lowered his voice, "I don't—I mean. Do you know what happened just now?"

Y/n's head fell to the side.

"What do you mean? Like just now in the competition?" She grinned, placing a hand on her hip, "Well I think we may have just kicked some ass. Do you know how awesome it's gonna be to be the unexpected victors? We'll make an entrance into this competition, dude."

"Ah, sure, sure, awesome, cool. But that's not really what I meant. I mean—I don't really remember what we just did. My head's a little fuzzy like I've been in a cloud? I think - I think it has something to do with that guy... You know, like, his Quirk."

That guy? As in—

"Shinsou's?" Y/n blinked. "What do you mean?"

"I mean I think he used his Quirk... Like, on us. To win the battle."

"His Quirk? What, you think he'd use it on us without warning or anything?"

"I mean, yeah, honestly?" Ojiro huffed humorlessly. "And Aoyama won't admit it, but I think he's in the same boat as me. He can't recall anything from battle and I can only remember like, twenty seconds before Midnight called time. And you? How's your head? Does it feel weird? Like—it's foggy. I can't..."

"Well - at the moment, I feel fine. I mean... Shinsou did something weird to me earlier," Y/n pressed her fingers to her chin, "it messed with my head a lot, kinda made me freeze up, but I don't think he was able to execute whatever he was trying to do properly? I did go stiff for like two seconds, you know? I couldn't move and it kind of like I was—"

"Under control." Ojiro finished for her, a hint of irritation in his words. "Yeah. Exactly like that."

"In third place, Tetsute—huh?" Y/n and Ojiro turned to Present Mic's voice and the loud announcements going over the placement of the cavalry battle. "What? It's Team Shinsou... When did you guys come from behind? That's... Well, that's unexpected!"

"Good," Shinsou mumbled, starting forward. "Thanks for your hard work, all of you."

He wasn't loud and his movements were quiet. He didn't say or do anything extra—nothing more than what was necessary. Y/n raised a brow as he passed. That certainly explained why neither Ojiro nor Aoyama was saying anything during the entire battle. But if he really did have the ability to "control" people, then... why wouldn't it work on Y/n? That didn't make any sense.

And, if Shinsou wanted to use his Quirk on them, all he had to do was tell everyone else what his plan was and how it was going to work. Unless he wanted to keep it a secret to use as some kind of advantage further down the line in the festival. Using his Quirk on his supposed 'teammates' was an asshole move regardless, though, and it had Ojiro shaken up—Y/n probably would be too, had it worked. 

Surrendering control to someone was scary enough on its own. 

Unwillingly doing so was terrifying. Her senses and the precise control she had over them was the only way she got by—it was the way she survived. Take those away and she would've been dead a while ago. 

That pissed her off. 

Who was Shinsou to steal the security of control someone had over themself?

Y/n's face drew as tight as her insides, something sharp and heavy dropping in her gut. It burned. She didn't like that at all.

"You know what?" Y/n turned to Ojiro. "I'll figure it out."

"You'll... Figure it out," Ojiro repeated.

"Yeah, totally," Y/n attempted to crack her knuckles coolly—she winced and hid them behind her back when she failed—and sent Ojiro a wink. "Detective L/n is on the case. I don't like what he did and I think I oughta knock some sense into him and get to the bottom of this weird little control Quirk of his!"

Y/n gave Ojiro a solid nod before turning on her heel to skip over to her new best friend.

"Hey, hey!" She called excitedly. "Where're you going?"

Shinsou's response was immediate. "Somewhere I don't want you to follow."

Y/n had her fair share of lackluster responses and people who were less than pleased to have her around as a source of company - she was in a class with Mr. Perfect and Pompom, that said a lot on its own - so she wasn't at all put off by his demeanor. It was the speed of the response that had her pausing and stumbling in her tracks beside him. He didn't even know her and he was already annoyed by her presence.

Just another person she'd have to charm.

Y/n shook it off and sped up. She was able to catch up to Shinsou's side, nudging his arm as she fell into step with him, grinning broadly.

"Hi. Do you want to be friends?"

"No, not at all."

"You can be my new best friend," Y/n continued absently, waving her hand with small flicks of her wrist as lips stretched to take up more of her face. "I lost my other one after a huge fallout—we had a fist fight—and sort of became rivals because he thinks he's better than everyone else. I wanna prove him wrong, so," she shrugged, "we're not talking right now."

Shinsou sighed. "Wow."

"Fine, okay. I was lying about the fist fight. It wasn't that exciting, but it was a fight. It's kind of hard to prove him wrong though because I pretty much suck at this hero thing. He said I'm not good at things involving strategic thinking and judgment and physical ability. And then I don't know my Quirk either, so I don't even have that as something spectacular to make up for all the ways I suck."

Another sigh. "Uh-huh."

Y/n didn't know if it was just her—but he seemed to fasten his pace and she was left jogging a small distance behind him to keep up as she continued speaking.

"Yeah, but it's fine because I can also do kind of really cool things? He thinks it's 'just luck' which—I highly doubt, because um, I don't think luck makes people teleport? I don't know though, I've kind of always been super lucky so I don't know how far the universe would go to bend and twist for the sake of my convenience. That's what I see it as, at least."

"Fascinating. Really."

"Thanks! Hey by the way, before the cavalry battle—what exactly were you trying to do to me?"

Y/n was able to feel the way his energy faltered, violently actually, at the question, and the corner of her lip quirked at the side. The first reaction she got from him since her approach. She bent forward like she was trying to catch his eyes. It would only work because she was blind; a blank stare was eerie, she heard, and in retrospect, unseeing, silver-tinted eyes were considered eerie and blank.

Shinsou didn't say anything and Y/n held her arms behind her back as she exaggerated her hum. "Mmmh, could it have been your Quirk? You were trying to use your Quirk but you failed? Is that what happened, Shinsou? That's strange - does it happen often? Your Quirk not working on people, I mean. Or was this the first time?"

Y/n lifted her hands to wildly gesture as she continued, "And apparently you successfully did it to Ojiro and Aoyama, but for some reason it didn't work on me, right? So why is that? Why didn't it work on me? Am I special? Is it because you're in love with me?" She snickered, poking at his shoulder. "Oh my gosh, are you falling for me? I'm so special and you love me? That's kind of fast. You should buy me dinner first, though - I'm free on Sundays after—"

"Shit, you're so annoying," Shinsou finally stopped in his tracks and he faced her. "Seriously. What's wrong with you? Actually. Why are you following me? What do you even want?"

"Answers," Y/n said. "If you answer me, there's a five percent chance I'll stop annoying you." Y/n nodded and raised her hands in false surrender, "I know, I know. I don't give out the offer too often, buddy. So I think it'd be in your best interest to take me up on it, okay?"

"Only five percent?" Shinsou scoffed. "You're extremely annoying."

Y/n dropped her hands and shrugged. "Yeah, you already said that. It's a tactic to distract people from my lack of ability. It works for the most part, I think."

There was a click of a tongue, a shuffle of feet, fleeting energy around Shinsou like a counterforce and internal struggle of whether he should give in or not. That was always interesting—being able to pick up on others' internal conflict, just by feeling the spikes.

Feeling was something bigger than words. And humans—people—felt a lot of things at once. It was what made it so easy for Y/n to reach the core. She smiled, playing with her hands behind her back as she rocked on the heels to her feet when she felt the shift around Shinsou. He'd give in.

"Listen: I don't know why it didn't work on you. It's never not worked so I don't have an explanation, there's no way I could. I am tired, and I want some kind of peace before the next... thing in this festival." Y/n raised her brows at the low growl in Shinsou's voice - she was under his skin. He breathed in and continued, "I don't want to be your friend, I'm not here to make friends, and I didn't choose you for my team with the intention of being friends. I just want you to leave me alone. Okay?"

Quiet, but had a temper.

A mix of Mr. Perfect and Pompom with a bit less drive. Either that or he was too tired to bring what was inside of him to the front. That was clear in the way he was handling the general competition. Doing his best to not stand out and using it to his advantage, coming through the last few seconds to barely be a part of the "final cut," preying on the weak and clueless and using that to his advantage. One could accuse his play of being unfair and he'd deny it with the claim of technicality. Because he technically wasn't doing anything that broke the rules. He was sitting in a puddle of gray. And the drag in his words, the baritone hum—he was like a sloth. A snake.

He was perfect to be her new best friend.

Y/n pulled her hands away from her back to clasp them with a coo, "Sloth man! That's so tough, I get what you mean, and I've heard the 'I want you to leave me alone' thing before, too. Don't worry, I'm not put off by it. We can be friends, anyway, okay?"

A flare in his energy—perhaps the most energy he'd exerted since coming up to Y/n.

"Leave me alone," Shinsou brushed past her with a shoulder chuck and Y/n grabbed his forearm with a small laugh.

"You know, after trying to control me with your Quirk today without my permission, I don't think your rudeness is very fair."

A spike in Shinsou's energy, a quirk of Y/n's lips.

"Speaking of—you should tell me more about that over lunch." She hooked one of her arms with his and marched forward. "What's your favorite food? I like anything that can go in my mouth."

"I don't like you," Shinsou said. "No really. You're pissing me off."

"Yeah, I've heard that one, too."

"The cafeteria's the other way."

Y/n froze. And then promptly tugged him the other way.

"No, I knew that, I just wanted to make sure you knew that."

***

"Wow, so you can control people's minds," Y/n shook her head as she took another bite of her food. "Do you know the science behind that? Like, how does it work? Are you somehow getting control of the brain waves or something? Because to me, it felt like you were figuratively holding me down."

"Figuratively holding you down?" Shinsou tapped the table. "What do you mean by that?"

"I mean. It felt like I was being tied down - but for my mind. So, like mentally, I guess. Not physically. Since I'm blind, my other senses are kind of enhanced - mostly my sense of touch, right? I can feel to a scary degree. For example, I can tell you're slouching, you're sitting with your legs apart. You're also very tired." She took a guess with the dimness around him. It was lacking flare.

"Shit," Shinsou immediately changed his posture. "Actually?"

"Mm. You just changed your posture again. I can feel those things in waves, almost, vibrations, signals, feelings. But when you tried using your Quirk on me, for a split second: I wasn't aware of anything at all. Like I was left in, like—some kind of a void."

"A void..." Shinsou switched to knocking his knuckles against the table instead of his fingertips. "It... Isn't supposed to feel like that. Not - not my Quirk, at least. Or, I guess I wouldn't really know... Are you sure, though? I tried to use my Quirk and... You just stopped being able to feel?"

"Yeah, like it was being suppressed. I wasn't aware of the energies around me, I wasn't sure where I could step without bumping into someone for the quick seconds you tried it on me. It was scary, man."

"So just, nothing."

"Nothing. My scientific theory is you do something affecting brain waves. Maybe you tighten them in your grip and mess with them like strings of a puppeteer while you have them," Y/n wiggled her fingers, "that's the way I picture it, at least."

"I... don't know, actually. I've never really thought about the science behind the Quirk. But from what I'm hearing in your... dumbed-down and simple terms, I think it'd make sense. It's possible that I target and take control of the Beta brainwaves and maybe - shut them down to make them more passive to my commands. That or I take the Theta waves and bring them to the forefront since I've heard the trance when under my mind control is... Sleepy."

"It's a lot of science and I don't understand any of it. But I can say that's crazy, dude. If I had that Quirk, I'd make Bakugou punch himself in the face a couple of times... I'd also probably make Todoroki call himself an idiot fifty times without rest. And then - I'd record both of those things to harass them with it for the rest of their lives. Every Friday: ding! Message from me. Check out this video of you being dumb again! You know?"

She could practically hear Shinsou roll his eyes. "Sure. But that's exactly the kind of thing people would expect. You know, the kind of thing that people would call me a villain for."

"Aw, well if wanting to see jerks humbled makes me a villain, then I'll be the villain." 

Shinsou laughed. "Stop it."

"No, I'm serious," Y/n set down her chopsticks to drum her fingers against the surface of the table, "I mean, where would the heroes be without them, right?—Anyways do you want the rest of that?"

Shinsou hummed, sliding his tray forward. "You're extremely efficient for someone who's blind and doesn't know their Quirk," he mused. "Are you actually considered a loser in your class, though? For some reason, I find it hard to believe. Like, you were able to do so much during the battle."

Y/n groaned, accepting the plate and digging into the rice. "Yeah. Top loser. All the way at the bottom. I'm considered weaker than a kid who breaks his bones every time he uses his Quirk. At least that's what my best friend said: the one you're replacing, by the way."

"Damn it," Shinsou sighed, continuing in a quiet voice, "I guess the Hero Course is pretty intense after all, huh." He cleared his voice and spoke up. "If you're at the bottom, whoever's at the top must be... insane. But then again, look who's in your class - the number two hero's son. That's just crazy."

"He's just an ex-best friend to me," Y/n reminded. "Nothing special, you know?"

"I was watching all of you guys throughout the festival," Shinsou said. "The obstacle course was unbelievable and intense; the number of lucky kids blessed with powerful Quirks kind of irks me. And it sucks, being called a loser by your own friend. Guess that's the Hero Course."

"It's alright. I don't think we were ever actually friends." Y/n smiled as she got to her feet. "Besides, it'll just make my win far bigger than anyone else's in that class or - something like that. At least I hope? Being a loser sucks. Anyway, thanks for lunch, Shinsou! Good luck with the rest of the festival!"

Y/n tapped the tips of her fingers against the surface of the lunch table twice and then was stalking off somewhere else. She didn't know where her friends or classmates were and she really wanted to find Midoriya to catch up with and see where he stood with how things went down in the last game of the festival. 

She also needed to report her information back to Ojiro. She liked Shinsou and all, but her class came first.

Y/n was stopped by someone.

"Ah, L/n! You showed up just in time," Kaminari grabbed her arm. "Mineta and I were just telling all the girls what Mr. Aizawa just told us. Listen up, he's telling them over here,"

"Wait... Are you sure?" Y/n heard Uraraka's curious and hesitant voice. She hurried over to where the rest of the girls were huddled to hear what was going on. If Mr. Aizawa said something about it, then it must have been something that'd be in her best interest to hear.

"Mhm, mhm," Mineta hummed. "Everyone has to wear cheer clothes to do a cheer battle in the afternoon..."

Jirou made a noise beside Y/n.

"That can't be right..." Momo muttered.

"You don't have to believe me, but we heard from Mr. Aizawa. I thought maybe you guys hadn't caught it, so I'd tell you just in case..."

"Really!" Y/n gasped, squeezing her fists. She was already vibrating, the corner of her lips lifting. That sounded so fun. "Cheer outfits? That's so exciting! Are they cute? I hope the routine isn't too hard... Do we get pom poms, too?"

"Yeah! Yes, totally," Kaminari said quickly, squeezing Y/n's arm as he pulled her close to him. He laughed, "I mean—it's a cheer battle, right? You gotta have the pompoms to shake!"

Y/n beamed, "Pompoms!"

Momo sighed, "I guess... I'll have to make the outfits. The cheer battle is happening after lunch, right? We'll meet up twenty minutes before then! In—in the locker rooms!"

***

vote if you feel like it!! we're getting to that fight soon... who's excited? :)