Isogai glanced at Bakugou's back as he stormed out, bored. Kirishima realized that he looked just as tired as Kaminari, if not more. His lack of energy seemed prolonged as if he hadn't slept decently in a week.

"Looks like someone isn't great at juggling lives, huh?" Isogai asked. Kirishima finally spoke up, anxious.

"I agree with Bakugou, dude. What's been up with you lately? You look like death."

"Thanks." Kaminari sighed and directed his attention to Isogai. Kirishima tasted a foul sourness on his tongue. "I uh...ran into Akabane and Shiota yesterday. I don't know what happened, maybe I was tired, but I swear something grabbed me."

Isogai looked unsure for a moment, then saddened, then neutral and decided. "That was just Nagisa; nothing grabbed you. He just...does that to people. It's scary, but not enough to scare someone too much anymore—he's got that under control. Why do you look so tired?"

"I'm only admitting this because I know I shouldn't have, but I fucked up." Kaminari was trying not to cry. Isogai felt panic rise in him.

"What are you guys even talking about? I'm sick of not being involved in all of this."

Isogai glared at him. "Sorry, Kirishima, but can you please screw off for a few minutes? We can talk about whatever you want, but what Kaminari just said is a little important."

"This is 'whatever I want to talk about,' you asshole. I'm not oblivious. Why's everyone been so weird?"

"This doesn't concern you, Kirishima," Kaminari added.

"If it doesn't involve me, why do either of you matter?"

"In case you haven't noticed, your friend here is this thing called an informant," Isogai said in a falsely teaching voice. The similarities to his old teacher stuck out to him as he spoke. "That means that he gets involved in stuff that you don't. What I do is just none of your business."

Kirishima hit first and thought second. Who does this guy think he is? Isogai stumbled back a few steps before standing up straight. He wiped at his nose, a heated look taking over at he looked back at Kirishima. Kaminari had never known Kirishima to be that violent right off the bat. "What the fuck was that—are you retarded? Why'd you hit him? He's right."

"Seriously? Maybe if your friend knew how to talk to people I'd have backed off. I'm not three."

"Is this how you react to taunting? You act real big, like it's just a joke when we're messing with other people. You wanna be involved with this crap so bad, but you can't even handle talking from this guy?"

Isogai couldn't find it in him to take offense. He could get fired for this. If his boss thought he was fighting, they'd fire him on the spot. Worse, he couldn't get a job like this, either. How was he going to provide for his family if he got fired? He snarked, "Hey Kaminari, learn to control your dog, will you? I could get fired just on speculation, and I'm poor."

"Who cares about you being poor?"

"My sick mom and my hungry siblings." Kirishima shut up at that. Kaminari sighed, tired.

"Can you just go? This is already hard enough without you making things worse. Bakugou doesn't understand what's going on, but you should know your place."

Kirishima stared at them, the look wedged between a glare and heavy regret. Talk about a rock and a hard place. He didn't budge. Isogai calling him a dog rung in his ears. Who does he think he is? He shouldn't be so upset, Kirishima thought—he can heal just like the rest of us. It'll be gone by the end of the day.

"Know my place? What the fuck, Kaminari? Since when are you this much of an ass?"

"Since he's had things to worry about other than you."

"Shut up, Isogai. Me and Kirishima fighting has nothing do with you."

"Sure, but him trying to break my face has everything to do with me. Whose side are you on, anyway? Pick a side."

"Yeah, man, don't tell me to know my place and then act like he's the only bad guy here."

"I can't do this shit right now. Isogai, I need to tell you what happened, and Kirishima, I need you to stay out of this. I already tried to get you involved so you could help, and that didn't go well, okay? I tried, so lay off."

"Screw whatever you did. I have better things to do than stand here with you guys." Isogai dabbed at his bruising skin with the bottom of his shirt. Kaminari had never seen him angry, much less scowling. "I'm gonna go to Anteiku or something. Go bother Karma or something...wait, sorry, they want you to fuck off, too."

Bakugou ducked into the classroom next door as Isogai and Kaminari left, awkwardly going down the hall in the same direction. Juggling lives? Informant? What the hell does Kirishima want to be involved with so bad? What do Akabane and Shiota have to do with this? He stood in there for a minute, waiting to see if Kirishima would leave.

After hearing the muffled sound of a chair creaking and scratching against the floor, Bakugou crept out of the classroom and stormed into the other class. Kirishima looked up at him, startled. His shock visually turned to fear as he realized that Bakugou had been listening in on what they were saying.

"Bakugou," Kirishima said, trying to discover some kind of excuse.

"What the fuck were you guys talking about? Are Kaminari and Isogai in a yakuza or something? Why would you want to be a part of that shit?"

"That's not what's going on at all! I...can't tell you. It..."

"I'm going to slam your head into that fucking desk if you say this doesn't concern me," Bakugou said, voice spilling with the assertion. "Are you guys ghouls or something? Are you trying to get into their organization?"

Kirishima was at a loss. Bakugou had jumped from the yakuza to them being ghouls, and he was right. Unsure what to say, Kirishima stayed silent. The smartest decision would be to talk to Kaminari and Isogai, then probably dispose of Bakugou. However, Kirishima would rather be the next ghoul to go missing than to talk to either of them right now. He also couldn't do that to Bakugou...he had a family at home, and he was his friend.

"Jesus, you guys are stupid. If you don't want people to figure you out, handle your shit outside of school."

"Bakugou, you can't tell anyone."

"No shit, weird-hair. As long as you don't eat me, I couldn't give a crap about whether your human or not. Now, answer my questions. What were you guys talking about?"

"I can't say, exactly. No one will tell me anything. Your guess is as good as mine," Kirishima lied. Little white lies never hurt anyone.

"Why do you want to join their organization so bad?"

"I don't...well, they're not a part of any organization that I know of. Just, the aftermath of whatever happened to Yamaguchi from class two is obviously dangerous, and no one involved will say anything." Bakugou went quiet for a moment before turning towards the door. Kirishima jumped after him. "Bakugou, wait!"

"I'm just going to go ask that one kid, what's-his-face. Y' know, the tall ass? Girls like him, I'll just ask one of them if he's in a club or something."

Kirishima screwed up, but...he could fix it, right? He won't hurt Bakugou, but what good is a dead ghoul's protection?

┈

Yaku felt so far out of his element in this part of town. He knew Tokyo well enough, but this wasn't his turf. All he knew was that a ghoul had started trailing Tsukishima after their joint practice, and he didn't want him to get hurt. He'd never had the chance to meet Yamaguchi, but he'd seen him (there was a small memorial, a picture was set up in a far corner of the gym with an old candle and surprisingly new flowers)—and he looked nice enough. It didn't make sense for whatever protections for Tsukishima he'd likely set up to go to waste.

He wanted to curse Tsukishima. He'd walked into a building that was practically crumbling. The place had been set aflame two weeks ago, and the owners refused to give it up despite not having insurance or the money to fix the damages. Why would Tsukishima come here?

His train of thought was cut short when the other ghoul finally revealed himself to Tsukishima, jumping out to get him. Yaku revealed himself, then, too, skewering the other ghoul on his kagune before throwing him against the wall. Tsukishima was frozen, fear lacing his eyes. They'd have to talk about this.

The other ghoul got up, scowling as he lunged for Tsukishima again. Yaku shot his kagune through the ceiling and flung himself at the ghoul, the bottoms of his shoes slamming into his neck and the side of his ribcage. "Go eat someone else!"

"Yaku–"

"Shut up Tsukishima!" Yaku growled. He turned to the other ghoul. "Who are you, and what do you want?"

"You're that guy from school...Kaminari's friend. I already told the other ghouls I would be quiet, why are you coming after me?"

"You know?"

Yaku paused, looking between them. Kaminari—Kantekku had mentioned that Tsukishima was somewhat trustworthy, but now Yaku wondered how much he knew. "Tsukishima, what the fuck is he talking about?"

"I know who all of the dangerous ghouls in my year at Rakuyama are, and they know I won't say anything."

"Then what the hell were you going to tell Bakugou about?"

"Who is Bakugou?"

"...what?"

Yaku launched Kirishima into the lousy foundation of the fire-rotted building. He'd planned to kill Tsukishima for no reason. Kirishima fought back throwing a crumbled piece of the concrete under-flooring at Yaku's head. Yaku was out before he hit the ground. Tsukishima bounded out of the building, hoping to make it into the open place next door. Kirishima followed him, kagune causing more destruction to the barely standing building.

Both of them stopped as the remains of the old two-story groaned. A thin, metal beam in the foundation screeched as it bent, the little ceiling around it crumbling to the ground several feet below. The building was going to go down with Yaku inside.

Tsukishima turned and bolted back inside, Kirishima watching thoughtlessly. It was the most un-him thing he'd ever done, but Yaku had been trying to save him. Tsukishima wasn't going to let his friend die again—he owed Yaku that much.

He wanted to scream. He should've tried harder in practice, gone the extra mile, done anything that could have made him stronger than this. For someone so small, Yaku was heavy. Tsukishima dragged him fruitlessly, trying to get them at least away from the center of the building, where the ceiling would cave on top of them.

A tiny voice in the back of his head whispered to him. Yaku's breathing was shallow. He was bleeding profusely from where the piece of concrete had hit him. He'll die, either way, the voice uttered. Even if he gets help, he'll die by morning. Even if he doesn't die, the hospital will call the CCG. Even if he survives that, he'll hate you for putting his name on the radar just like Yamaguchi did—just like Yamaguchi probably hated you before he died because you acted before you thought.

The remains of the building creaked and whined. Tsukishima felt tears welling in his eyes. He couldn't let Yaku go, not like he did Yamaguchi. But, the building was going to kill them both. Where was the other ghoul? Had he left? Even with adrenaline pumping in his veins, Tsukishima couldn't muster the strength to pull any harder.

Tsukishima's parents had fallen asleep, exhausted from their worry. Akiteru continued to stare at the door, waiting for his not-so-little brother to walk through the doors. He waited so he could get angry—yell and scream at him for taking so long, for making them worry, for making their mother cry again. There had been nights where Tsukishima took his time getting home, but never this long. Guilt never kept Tsukishima this much.

Kirishima couldn't believe what he was seeing. He'd watched two people die, but he'd seen death before. Coluber Constrictor and Crimson Raven were standing over him, wild looks in their eyes.

"It smells like death."

"It smells like Tsukishima—where is he? Where is Tsukishima, Mite? Where is he?"

"I...he ran back in the building to get the other guy...the building..."

Karma didn't listen to the rest of what Kirishima had to say. With Kirishima out, he had a new idea. His father would hate it, but Kirishima didn't matter, and Uraraka was one of the good ones.

A young woman stood over the two boys, a pitying look on her face and a joyful glint in her eyes. Tsukishima had tears streaming down his face. Yaku was dying, just like Yamaguchi. His leg was crushed, would he play again? This woman just watched, motionless. Fear, anger, pain, anguish, and so many other feeling swirled in his heaving lungs.

Tsukishima wasn't religious. He could see no God or deities, yet he prayed. The woman drove the side of her boot into his head.

The pulsing in Yaku's neck slowed to a stop against Tsukishima's arm, trapped underneath it. Tsukishima didn't know he could go more limp.  

┈

(2273 Words)